


Come Sail Away

by unbirthdaydance



Category: SHINee
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, M/M, Military Kink, Multi, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-16
Updated: 2013-12-11
Packaged: 2017-12-29 13:36:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 50,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1006055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unbirthdaydance/pseuds/unbirthdaydance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain Lee and Commander Choi of the Navy starship <i>SHINee</i> set out to capture the infamous pirate Key and his dastardly crew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the Everybody teaser photos, and also [this amazing edit of Key](http://tokkitaepup.tumblr.com/post/62939329355). Obviously started before I knew the concept was _toy soldiers_ , haha. Title from [the song by Styx](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TcztyNlFx0).
> 
> This was such fun to write! I expect there will be four parts of this in total, each about this length, and I’ll update weekly. Also, there will be some military roleplaying kink in a later part, hence the tag.

**COME SAIL AWAY**

~~~

A man knelt in a small chapel in the northern part of the moon-city of Juliette. Heavy necklaces with religious symbols hung from his neck. They swayed as he bowed his head and murmured ancient words, clinking gently in the hushed atmosphere of the chapel. The other worshippers in the chapel stayed a respectful distance away, unwilling to disturb a priest at prayer.

Taemin suspected they wouldn’t be so respectful if they knew exactly what he was praying for. The Order of Juliette’s dogma did not include a belief in hell, but given certain choices Taemin had made, he figured it couldn’t hurt to pray for the spirits not to send him there just in case. It would be awful to live such a fine life, then be doomed to eternal boredom after his death just because he'd neglected his beliefs.

Besides, praying was both comforting and interesting. Taemin had been stuck on this dreary little backwater moon for far too long. He was tired of it.

That was all right. He breathed in slowly, eyes closed, inhaling the incense burning at the altar. Patience was a virtue he really needed to practice more. Things would happen when they did, and there was no point in wasting one’s time by resenting the fact that life was boring _now_.

He clasped his hands together and studiously returned to prayer.

~~~

_He dreamed, and he dreamed of Kibum._

_They were sitting on a battered sofa in their own cozy little apartment somewhere in the Sirian star system. It did not matter that neither of them had ever owned a sofa or an apartment in their lives, much less anywhere near the safety of Sirius. This was a dream. It did what it would._

_They were watching some third-rate horror movie. Kibum was terrified despite the fakeness of the set and the terrible acting; he screamed every time some extragalactic creature leapt out from the darkness of hovercar parking lots to consume a side character. Minho, unaffected by the cheesy violence, settled an arm about Kibum’s shoulders. Kibum promptly buried his face in Minho’s shirt to hide from the screen._

_Kibum smelled soft and sweet and clean, like freshly washed laundry and gentle shampoo. Minho cuddled his boyfriend close and felt a familiar, possessive tenderness flood through him. The dream stretched out into an eternity of a moment, Kibum safe and warm in Minho’s embrace, to love and treasure and protect._

_Minho pressed a lingering kiss to the softness of Kibum’s hair. Kibum snuggled closer, lifting his head to smile gratefully up at Minho. His pretty lips parted, mouth opening to speak._

_Instead of words, the dialogue from the movie rumbled from his throat._

_“Kibum?” Minho whispered, tightening his hold on his boyfriend._

_The monster on the viewscreen laughed through Kibum’s mouth. The soundtrack shifted, changed, became darker. Loud screeching noises howled with terrifying volume, shaking Kibum to dust in Minho’s arms. It was Minho’s turn to scream, reaching out desperately for what he’d lost. But it did not matter._

_The noise blared like alarms in Minho’s head, like Kibum’s laughter, like sirens, and he cried and he cried, fingers closing on empty air, and the noise of alarms continued to sound-_

He woke with a start. There really _were_ alarms sounding, quiet ones, letting him know that his sleep cycle had to be cut short because his presence was required on the bridge for an emergency.

Minho sighed and rubbed sleep from his eyes. Spirits damn it all. You’d think that after several _years_ , the fucking nightmares would stop. But apparently not.

He shook his head and rolled out of bed. A crisply spoken command turned on the viewscreen attached to his wall, letting him know exactly what was happening as he dressed and made ready to report to the bridge.

Apparently, a pirate ship had been waiting for them when they’d dropped out of warp. This was unusual. Pirates didn’t usually attack military vessels.

Once Minho had his uniform on- boots buckled, jacket buttoned, cap settled upon his head- he focused on what the viewscreen was actually showing him.

His jaw dropped, quite literally. He _recognized_ that pirate’s ship; almost everyone who’d seen the Confederacy’s Most Wanted list would have. This was the vessel of the notorious pirate Captain Key.

Pictured in miniature on the viewscreen, the infamous ship floated through the deep recesses of space, its purpose every bit as mysterious as its name. No one understood the meaning behind the ship’s designation. Some said the name had a dark significance in an ancient, forgotten language. Others believed the name was code for something truly insidious.

Still others pointed out that the term ‘ _Comme des Garçons’_ was also the name of a very prominent fashion brand. Of course, this suggestion was duly dismissed by most. It was inconceivable that such a dread pirate would have named his vessel after a line of fancy designer clothing.

Minho, of course, knew better. He distinctly remembered the endless reruns of _Project Runway: Mars Edition_ that Kibum had used to make him watch on date nights.

That memory was irrelevant. Minho switched the viewscreen off. The important thing was, what was the _Garçons_ doing _here_?

More to the point, what terrifying scheme had the pirates dreamed up now?

~~~

Said pirates were, at that very moment, playing an intense round of poker. Or at least, the captain and his right hand man were. Jonghyun had a habit of playing card games to ease his nerves before embarking on big endeavors like this. It made him feel as if he had control of _something_ , given how all battle plans tended to go awry.

Unfortunately, he also had a habit of losing at said card games, especially when his opponent was Key.

“…royal flush. Suck it, loser.”

Jonghyun flung down his cards in frustration. Key smirked, leaned backward and propped booted feet up on the plastic table.

“You’re cheating, you bastard,” Jonghyun accused him. “ _Nobody_ is that lucky.”

“ _I_ am,” Key said smugly, fluttering his eyelashes at Jonghyun’s scowl. “They don’t call me the Almighty Key for nothing, you know.”

Jonghyun ignored this. “One of these days I’m going to figure out your secret,” he muttered darkly, gathering up his cards. “Just you wait and see, motherfucker.”

Key flung his head back and laughed. Said laughter was then promptly cut short by the sharp buzz of his wrist communicator, signaling a message from the bridge.

“ _Captain_ , _the_ C.S.S. SHINee _has come out of warp._ ”

Key’s grin turned feral as he pressed the button to answer. “Noted. We’ll be up shortly.”

“ _Aye, sir._ ”

Key snatched his gray cap up off the table and stood. “You ready for this?”

Jonghyun grinned back, equally gleeful at the prospect of what was to come.

“You bet I am.”

~~~

Jinki stood on the bridge of his ship, gazing out at the star-studded darkness beyond. His crew bustled around him, intent on the task of preparing the _SHINee_ for battle with the _Comme des Garçons._

Jinki sighed. _Pirates_. He hated tangling with them; they never fought fair. And Key was the _worst_ of the lot in that regard.

“Sir!”

Jinki turned to see his second in command approaching, boots clicking sharply on the metal deck and coattails of the red jacket snapping briskly behind him.

“Commander,” Jinki said, acknowledging his second with a nod. “I assume you understand the situation.”

Minho nodded, coming to a halt a respectful few steps away. Minho was, without fail, a very proper, dutiful officer. He went by the book and put not one toe out of place.

Of course, he was also comfortable scrapping the book when times called, and could be a right ruthless bastard at times. Jinki wouldn’t have put up with him as a 2IC otherwise.

And having Minho around now might be especially useful. Jinki tilted his head at the viewport.

“What do you make of this, Commander?”

Minho swallowed, for once not quite as perfectly composed as was usual for him. Interesting, and possibly worrisome.

“I’m not sure,” Minho said. He frowned. “Key wouldn’t be here for no reason, but this isn’t a shipping thruway. There’s nothing for him to prey on, so I’m not sure exactly what he thinks he’s doing.”

“Do you think he knows _you’re_ here?”

Jinki watched Minho wince at this bluntness, then take a breath and square his shoulders.

“I don’t know, sir. I wouldn’t think so, since Navy assignments are classified, but, well…”

“Key does have a good spy network for a pirate,” Jinki agreed. “And this mission isn’t very _highly_ classified, which would make it easier for his people to hack into the specs.” His eyes narrowed. “I do have a question for you, Choi.”

Minho’s back stiffened. “Sir?”

“Do you think you can handle this situation?” Jinki asked, sparing only the most fleeting of regrets for how harsh this question was. He had to know, or they might all get killed. “I know the two of you were once close, but he’s a target and an enemy now, not your friend.”

Or more than friend, but Jinki wasn’t about to say that in public, not with all the bridge crew listening.

Minho nodded, still tense. “Yes, sir. I understand my duty.”

Jinki allowed the set of his face to soften a little. “We will aim to capture him in order to give him a fair trial according to the dictates of Confederate law, but we can’t guarantee we’ll succeed.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We might have to kill him.”

Minho drew in a shuddery breath. “Yes, sir.”

Jinki nodded, satisfied. Minho was a very good officer indeed.

“Thank you, Commander. Helm! Bring us about; it’s time we engage these bastards.”

A chorus of resounding _Aye, sir!_ ’s came from the crew. Jinki crossed his arms behind his back and returned his attention to the menacing form of the pirate ship lurking not too far away.

~~~

“They’re moving!” yelled the helmsman. “Shit, Cap’n-”

“Stop panicking,” ordered Key from where he was sprawled in the captain’s chair, twisting a strand of long dark hair about his fingers. “They might be bigger, but we’re faster.”

“Size isn’t everything,” Jonghyun added from his seat at the weapons panel.

“You’d know,” Key agreed, and smirked when Jonghyun glared at him. “Helm, take us forward and angle up, then drop on them. Weapons, concentrate fire on the engines and the bridge. Communications, how’s the scrambling effort going?”

The blue-skinned comm officer shook her head. “Not well. They’ve got hella good security on their channels.”

“Well, keep trying.” Key returned his attention to the rapidly-approaching shape of the _SHINee_. “Helm, what the fuck are you doing? _Faster_.”

“I don’t want to crash into them,” muttered the helmsman through gritted teeth. “I like my life and bones intact, thank you very much.”

He obeyed anyway, of course, and the ship picked up speed. The indicators in the bridge flashed bright yellow, warning of an imminent collision if they kept on their present course.

Key grinned, satisfied, and went back to playing with his hair.

~~~

“Are they trying to _ram_ us?” Minho said incredulously.

He swayed a little on his feet as the viewport shifted to a technical display of the action which was more useful for planning battle tactics than a normal view. The ship’s gravity was perfectly stable, of course, but just _knowing_ the speed at which they were moving tended to make Minho feel automatically unsteady.

Well, that and the fact that the _Comme des Garçons_ was accelerating almost straight at them, with only the barest hint of an upward incline.

“Keep below them and fire as we pass,” the captain was ordering the crew, ignoring Minho’s words. “Our objective should be to gut their warp drive. In a ship that make, the drive ought to be on top of the ship. Distract them with fire at the bridge, then force them into a roll so we can target the drive.”

Minho tuned out the technical chatter and frowned at the giant, flickering green readout. Undoubtedly, the _Garçons_ really wasn’t trying to ram them. Pirates weren’t the suicidal type; there would be no profit in dying to _maybe_ take out a Navy destroyer.

Unless it wasn’t profit on Key’s mind, but some inexplicable form of vengeance…but no, that didn’t make sense either. Key liked living. More to the point, so did his crew; they’d surely mutiny if their captain ordered them on a suicide run.

Further, Minho thought resentfully, Key had been the one to leave _him_. Thus, the pirates’ objective couldn’t be vengeance. It had to be profit…didn’t it?

But what was profitable about attacking a _military_ ship? The only thing of value aboard was perhaps refined military technology, but a Navy ship would self-destruct before letting such valuable material fall into the hands of pirates. There was just no _point_ to targeting the _SHINee_ , rather than a nice big freighter or expensive luxury cruise-liner.

“Commander.”

Minho shook his musings away and straightened.

“Yes, sir?”

Jinki regarded him silently for a moment. Then he said: “Keep a sharp eye out as we maneuver. Let me know the _instant_ you think Key’s got a surprise in store.”

Minho nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Jinki offered him a faint smile of encouragement and returned his attention to the display and the crew. Minho adjusted the glossy brim of his cap, trying not to panic.

Predicting Key always had been an impossible task.

~~~

“They’re falling for it,” Key said softly. He swung his legs over the arm of the captain’s chair, all casual ease gone and replaced by intense focus now that the battle had begun in earnest. “Remember your instructions. Get ready. We’ll drop any moment now.”

Sweat dripped down Jonghyun’s neck as he prepared the weapons for activation. The helmsman looked about to faint from terror as he nudged the ship up slightly, preparing their course

Jonghyun just grinned. He loved the adrenaline surge of near-death experiences.

The nose of the _SHINee_ drew nearer and nearer, at speeds made comprehensible only by the computerized readout. Once it came close enough- the distance between the two ships small enough for alarms on the _Garçons_ to start blaring with proximity alerts- the helmsman reacted with lightning-fast reflexes.

He cut the ship’s forward speed and sent it falling straight down on top of the _SHINee_. Jonghyun’s fingers flashed over the weapon’s panel, sending streams of bright laser-fire at the Navy vessel, strafing both its sides where the engines were located and the broad, flat expanse of the bridge’s outside.

The _SHINee_ returned fire, of course, but it had clearly not been prepared for the _Garçons_ to hurtle straight at it from above. It accelerated on its former path, diagonally down and away from the path of fire, trying for an escape route.

“One target down!” Jonghyun yelled as fires sputtered out on the surface of the _SHINee_ , damped by the vacuum of space. “I got their starboard engine!”

Key was sitting rigidly straight, hands curved over the arms of his chair in a white-knuckled grip.

“Follow them,” he ordered the helm. “Mark a parallel course. If they try to circle, circle with them. Systems, warm up the tractor beam.”

The _Garçons_ ’s angle of descent changed to match that of the _SHINee_ , the two ships speeding together like two wheels locked together by the same axle. Lasers continued to flash between the vessels as they exchanged fire. Fortunately, the _Garçons_ ’ nose was facing away from the _SHINee_ as they accelerated backwards, keeping the bridge viewport free of distracting color.

Jonghyun squinted hard at the weapons display, mind spinning with a thousand different considerations for how to take out the other main engine on the _SHINee_. Engines were one of the best-protected parts of any ship, along with the communication arrays, the bridge and the warp drive. It wasn’t easy to damage them, let alone destroy them.

Additionally, any ship worth its salt had a set of back-up engines for redundancy in case of main engine failure, and Jonghyun had no idea where the back-up engines were located on the _SHINee_. Most Navy vessel specs were classified.

He shot at the port side of the _SHINee_ anyway, targeting the obvious bulk of the main engines. The other weapons specialist on the _Garçons_ directed her fire across the bridge- a standard distraction tactic- and the main part of the ship, trying for as much damage as possible without getting at the warp drive.

A puff of smoke and flame, quickly extinguished as oxygen fled the site, signaled that Jonghyun had managed to cut out the second main engine. He whooped with glee.

  
“Captain, I got the port engine!”

“Good,” said Key, eyes still intent on the viewport. “Helm, bring us in a circle around the ship, slowly. Let them get in a good couple of hits. Comm, have you scrambled-”

“I can’t,” said the communications officer, shaking her head. “Sorry, Captain, they’re too well-secured.”

Key huffed out an aggravated sigh. “Fine, then. Weapons, wreck the communications array, or at least _damage_ it. Systems, grab the _SHINee_ with the tractor beam and slow it down. We don’t want them spiraling endlessly off into space because their engines have cut out.”

“Aye,” the systems officer chirped. She reached out with one feathery wing to engage the beam.

The _Garçons_ rocked with laserfire as it dragged the larger ship to a shuddering halt.

~~~

“Captain, they’ve locked us in their tractor beam!”

Jinki permitted himself a small frown. “Keep firing. They’ll back off if we damage them enough.”

“Aye, sir!”

As the weapons personnel increased their efforts, Jinki glanced over at Minho. His 2IC still looked disturbed and thoughtful, his brows settled into a pensive frown over his eyes.

“If we get hit any worse, we’ll have to start evacuating the ship,” Jinki said quietly to him, placing a hand on Minho’s upper arm. “Commander, I’ll need you to-”

“Sir, we got them! Damage on their starboard wing!”

Jinki looked sharply back at the viewport. The _Garçons_ had indeed lost a big chunk of its right wing. Large pieces of metal and wiring tumbled off into space to float aimlessly out into the void.

As he watched, the fire from the _SHINee_ intensified, taking advantage of the already damaged wing to tear apart more of the _Garçons_ ’ structure. Of course, the _Garçons’_ fire didn’t let up either. Jinki growled quietly as the readout flashed a warning that their communications array had been hit.

Then, to his surprise, the _SHINee_ gave a shuddering groan that indicated the unlocking of the tractor beam. Only a moment later, the _Garçons_ sped off into space, accelerating into a blur of stretched-out light as it went into warp and vanished.

“They’re gone,” said Minho, with slow incredulity. “They just…gave up and went.”

“Maybe we damaged them too badly,” said Jinki. He raised his voice. “Speaking of which, how badly are _we_ hurt?”

Reports filtered back to him from the crew. Neither main engine functional. Back-up engines working but unreliable. Communications array damaged, barely functional. Various other minor systems operating at less than full efficiency.

Jinki sighed. It might just be _barely_ possible for them to limp back to a Navy starbase for repairs, especially since nothing much was wrong with their warp drive, but given the extent of the damage, it wasn’t a good idea. Besides, it was against protocol. Damage this severe required repairs as soon as possible.

Minho seemed to be ahead of him on this vein of thought.

“Where’s the nearest repair yard?” his second was asking. “We need somewhere that’s approved to handle military repairs on a vessel of this type, and somewhere _near_.”

A galactic map spun into holographic view on the viewport. Suitable starship repair yards were marked by little yellow dots. The map zoomed in on their current location. It was depressingly devoid of dots.

No, wait. There was one little yellow glow flickering at the bottom left of the zoomed-in screen.

“There,” said Jinki. “ _Romeo’s Repair Yard_ on…what planet is that, anyway?”

“It’s a moon, not a planet,” said Minho, reading the notes on the display. “A large moon, but it doesn’t have its own designation.” His mouth quirked. “The locals call it _Juliette_. I wonder if the yard or the moon was named first?”

Jinki couldn’t help but smile. He had a secret weakness for wordplay.

“Set course,” he ordered the helm. “Use a low warp speed; I don’t want us exploding en route.”

“Aye, sir!”

~~~

Key sighed and leaned back in his chair, eyes closed. He let Jonghyun deal with the mess of the damaged wing for the moment. There was a small asteroid nearby with a repair yard that catered to those with not-exactly-legal interests. The damage wasn’t that bad, anyway. It would get fixed, and then…

A small thrill stirred low in his stomach, aided by the knowledge that a certain commander had been on the _SHINee_ just now. Key grinned happily.

Everything was going just as planned.

~~~

The _SHINee_ drifted ponderously into an open-vacuum hangar in the repair yard. With the main engines destroyed and the back-ups faltering perilously, the ship had to rely on the tractor beams of some of the yard’s drones to move it at below-warp speeds into the proper hangar.

Jinki spent the entire trip standing stiffly on the bridge, teeth clenched. It didn’t matter how damaged the ship was already; it made him incredibly nervous to rely on someone not his own crew handling his baby.

Once the ship was docked, Jinki gave permission for non-essential crew members to rotate through shore leave. There was really no point to keeping two hundred-odd bored sailors locked in the _SHINee_ while the ship did nothing but suffer through repairs.

That done, he went to meet with the manager on duty for the repair yard. He couldn’t quite repress a sigh as he rode a shuttle into the space station main. Fighting pirates may not be his favorite thing ever, but handling the immense amount of paperwork sure to come was most definitely _worse_.

~~~

Minho strolled through the main streets of the moon-city Juliette and tried to enjoy his shore leave. It wasn’t easy. Half of him felt like he should be back on the ship, helping his captain oversee the repairs, although there really wasn’t much either of them could do at this point. It was mostly just filling out forms and letting the repair crews have their way.

The rest of him just felt…unsettled. It wasn’t every day one found oneself in a space battle to the death with one’s ex-boyfriend.

Except…Key and company hadn’t really seemed to be trying to _kill_ them. And there were just so many strange things about the whole encounter. What had Key been trying to accomplish? Why on earth had the pirates spared the _SHINee_ ’s warp drive, and then simply _fled_? And it couldn’t have been an accident that Key had decided to attack the vessel Minho served on. It just couldn’t be. The galaxy was far too large for such a thing to be merely coincidence.

Minho sighed and shook off his lingering unease. He seemed to be doing a lot of that recently.

He focused on his surroundings instead. Juliette was a fairly standard vaguely-industrial backwater moon, covered in a single sprawling city. The local fashion seemed to consist of a lack of any bright color, and oversized floppy hats. Heavily styled eyelashes seemed to be in as well. Minho felt incredibly awkward in his bright red and white uniform, like a flashing beacon in the midst of a flock of Betelgeusian penguins.

Well, never mind that. He adjusted his sunglasses- the light from the gas giant planet reflected above was a bit bright- and strolled on. He only had about an hour left before he was supposed to check in with the captain about the repairs.

He didn’t get very far before he ran into the priest.

 _Literally_ ran into him. A warm, skinny body crashed into him with far more force than Minho would have expected from someone just ambling down the sidewalk. They both stumbled backwards, the priest catching himself with uncanny grace and a truly amazing near-pirouette.

“I’m sorry!” the priest exclaimed once they’d both regained their balance. “I totally didn’t mean to walk into you like that, I swear. I just wasn’t looking where I was going. Um.”

The priest smoothed nervous hands down his front. He was wearing the atrocious local floppy hat, though it didn’t look quite so awful on him, and a black and white skirt, leggings and skirt-thing ensemble. A collection of heavy chains with religious symbols dangled from his neck, marking him as a priest.

He was also _incredibly_ pretty. Minho hadn’t been brought up religious; he’d always had the vague idea that servants of the spirits were weathered old folk with gray hair and far too many wrinkles.

Apparently not.

“It’s all right,” Minho said hastily, realizing he’d been staring quite rudely at the other for far too long. “I wasn’t really looking where I was walking either.”

The priest visibly relaxed. “Oh, good. I wanted to ask you something- well, not _you_ , but one of the sailors on that ship- and it wouldn’t be a good first impression if you didn’t like me.”

“I assure you that I don’t dislike you,” said Minho as politely as he could, given that he wasn’t quite sure what title to address the other with.

“Really?” The priest bounced up and down on the balls of his feet. “Then can I ask you my question?”

“Yes,” said Minho. He couldn’t help smiling slightly, despite his mood. He was an odd duck, this priest. “Ask away.”

The priest blinked rapidly, as if trying to recall from memory some complicated string of words.

“I ask to invoke the right of religious accompaniment aboard your vessel- no, wait, that’s not right, it’s religious sanctuary, isn’t it? No, that’s when you’re being persecuted. Um. Religious hitchhiking? Do you know what I’m talking about?”

He gazed hopefully up at Minho, who sighed. Minho did indeed know what the priest was talking about, although he couldn’t quite recall the proper term for it either. The Star Navy had a policy of permitting officials of recognized and approved religions to ride aboard military vessels free of charge in order to aid them in their spiritual wanderings.

Essentially, it really was religious hitchhiking, although Minho was pretty sure that wasn’t what the rulebook called it.

“We may not be going anywhere for a while,” Minho told him. “Our ship got pretty beat up in a fight with some pirates. We’re to remain on Juliette until the repairs are done.”

“Oh, I know,” said the priest, apparently unbothered. “It’s the talk of the town.” Then, before Minho could ask how on _earth_ the entire bloody moon already knew about the _SHINee_ ’s status, the priest stepped closer and laid an appealing hand on Minho’s arm.

“Please,” he said, eye going very wide. “I know you might be here awhile, but I’d like to acquaint myself with the ship before you go off again. If it’s no trouble…”

It was going to be a lot of trouble, Minho thought. The poor captain would have to deal with humoring some random priest while involved in the repairs and figuring out what the hell had been going on with the pirates.

All the same, he couldn’t exactly go against Navy policy.

“All right,” said Minho, trying not to show his reluctance. “Do you want me to take you to the _SHINee_ now?”

The priest shook his head. “Can we drop by my place and pick my things up first? There’s not a lot,” he added hastily. “I promise. It won’t take long.”

Minho fought back another sigh.

~~~

Taemin was pretty sure the handsome Navy commander didn’t like him. Then again, with the dull way he was staring about at everything, Taemin suspected he didn’t like much of anything at the moment. That was all right. Everyone had bad days.

He touched the dangling spiritual symbols of his necklaces and smiled. Commander Choi Minho’s life would pick up soon enough. Taemin wound the chains about his fingers. This was going to be such _fun_.

“Is this it?”

Taemin broke from his distracted musings and glanced up at the towering form of the shabby hotel where he’d been staying the past month. How _boring_. He’d be glad to be gone.

“Yep,” he said in answer to Minho’s question. He gestured vaguely about. “You can wait here; I’ll just go up, grab my stuff and check out, okay?”

“Sure,” said Minho. He ambled over to sit on of a pair of ashy benches in front of the windows of the hotel lobby. The contrast between the bright, vivid red of his uniform jacket and the dull gray of his surroundings was really quite amusing.

Taemin grinned, adjusted his hat, and went in.

It had taken them about fifteen minutes to walk here. It took Taemin twenty minutes to get his things, pack them up, and check out. The hotel receptionist argued with him for the _longest_ time about the bill, insisting that the discount they’d agreed upon beforehand wasn’t legal enough to follow. Taemin had to tap his fingers against the counter very severely and remind the receptionist just which organization he worked for before the irritating woman relented.

Only then did Taemin manage to _finally_ escape the hotel’s damp, smelly confines.

“All done!” he chirped at Minho. “Lead me to your ship!”

They were perhaps ten minutes into a hover-taxi back when Taemin realized he’d forgotten his extra pack back at the hotel. Minho, face very aggrieved, ordered the taxi around. He lifted his communicator and messaged his captain in order to explain that he would be late.

Taemin gazed dreamily out the window, wondering what a Navy spaceship might look like on the inside.

~~~

Jinki, despite himself, was pleased at the arrival of the priest. He shouldn’t be, of course, because it was mildly cruel of him to be pleased at the opportunity to foist the overseeing of the endless nitpicky details of the repairs onto his 2IC. All the same, there was a certain bounce to his step as he waited in one of the rooms adjacent to the shuttle bay to welcome Minho and their priestly guest.

Given the put-upon tone of Minho’s voice when he’d called, Jinki had expected the priest to be of the endlessly preachy, annoyingly opinionated type, reminiscent of the paper-pushers he’d been dealing with all day.

He had _not_ expected him to be so, well… _attractive._

Jinki straightened his shoulders as the priest approached, trailing curiously in Minho’s wake. Shit, the guy really was one of the prettiest people Jinki had ever seen, with those eyes and those lips and that softly interested tilt to his head...

“Sir,” said Mino, and dutifully saluted. “This is Taemin, priest of the Order of Juliette.”

Jinki raised an eyebrow, trying for cool courtesy. He had to be _professional_ about this, damn it all.

“I wasn’t aware that the moon had its own religious order,” he said, offering the priest a bow in greeting. “Welcome aboard.”

“Our order is kinda small,” Taemin said, returning Jinki’s bow with a dip of his own head. “I’m pretty sure it’s mentioned in the Navy list, though.”

“It is,” said Minho. “I looked it up on the way back.” He glanced at Jinki. “Sir, should I…?”

Jinki did his absolute best not to grin with un-captainly glee. “The yard’s manager is waiting in my office,” he said. “You’d probably better go see what he has to complain about now.”

Minho’s face twitched. “Yes, sir.”

Jinki clapped him on the arm in sympathy as Minho strode forward towards the corridor. Once the door had hissed shut behind him, Jinki held out a hand to the priest.

“Please, let me take some of your things,” he said. “I’ll show you to your quarters.”

Taemin let Jinki slide two of the bags over his shoulders. “Thank you,” he said. His fingers anxiously played with the necklaces looped about his slender neck. “I hope this isn’t too inconvenient for you, Captain.”

Jinki shook his head. “Of course not, Taemin-…?” He let his voice trail off, indicating that he was asking what title Taemin’s order preferred.

Taemin shook his head. “Just Taemin is fine,” he said, smiling finally. “The Order of Juliette isn’t formal.”

Jinki smiled back. Something low in his stomach flipped over at the way Taemin’s eyes crinkled at him.

He was going to have to do some research on the Order of Juliette, he decided as he led Taemin out into the corridor. He deeply hoped they were not one of the celibate orders. It would be nice to invite the pretty priest out to a bar on his off-duty cycle and see if there was a possibility for things to…progress.

In the meantime, it was going to be hell trying not to accidentally flirt with the guy.

~~~

Finally off-duty after several hours of dealing with micro-managing bureaucrats, Minho headed back to his quarters in anticipation of a nice, refreshing sleep.

Once alone, he shucked off his boots, cap and jacket. Then he stretched, rolling his head around to ease out the tension in his neck. If he’d had to deal with one more complaint from Resources about misfiled circuitry restocking requests, he’d have set the bloody computer on fire.

But with both him and the captain off at the moment, that joy would fall to the unfortunate lieutenant commander ranked third on the ship. Minho winced sympathetically to himself. Good luck to her.

He padded over to the dresser opposite his bed, socked feet slipping a little against the plastic floor. He was in need of some stress relief.

He pulled open the top drawer and fished around for the wooden box he kept buried under random office supplies, spare socks and other odds and ends. The box contained four very special items, all of which Minho treasured dearly.

Once he had the box in hand, he went and curled up on his bed. He carefully undid the latch on the box and lifted the lid.

Nestled between layers of soft cloth were four gently glittering star orbs.

A star orb was a very rare, very precious piece of art from a guild of artists whose mission was to capture the cosmos in all its exquisite glory through artwork made by the appendages of sentient beings. The guild’s artists wove tapestries, sculpted pottery, carved statues, painted canvases splashed with the color of nebulas, and more besides. If there was an art form out there, the guild was likely invested in it.

The star orbs were based on an ancient Earthen custom of making little glass balls with snow falling over a tiny sculpted landscape. Unlike the glass balls of the ancients, the star orbs were breath-takingly realistic. Each contained a miniature starscape crafted with such intricate detail that one could almost mistake the orb’s interior for a viewscreen looking out into the depths of actual space itself.

The insides of the orbs were not holograms. Nor were they sculptures. No one apart from the orb-crafters knew quite _what_ they were, only that they were beautiful beyond description.

Minho had four of these orbs. He’d have liked more, but they were incredibly expensive and a sailor’s salary- even an officer’s salary- did not pay nearly enough to indulge himself with purchasing large quantities of them.

In truth, he’d only paid money for half of one. He hadn’t originally been interested in the orbs. He’d learned about them from Kibum, who’d received one as a gift from his grandmother and had become subsequently obsessed with the things. Kibum had saved endless pictures of the orbs on his computer tablet, written reviews on fashion blogs that featured orb-inspired collections and gazed for contented hours at the ever-changing drifts of starlight in the orb his grandmother had given him.

Somewhere along the way, Minho had been swayed by Kibum’s fascination with the things. They’d saved up together for two years to buy a second, working extra jobs, saving gifts of money from their families, and risking their small fortune in casinos to attain enough money for the purchase.

When Kibum had deserted, he’d left the pair of orbs behind. Minho still had no idea why he’d abandoned his most precious possessions, but he’d been too broken-hearted at the time to question it.

He’d kept the orbs, of course, even though their presence was a painful reminder of what he had lost. Those two orbs thus accounted for half his small collection.

The third orb had been a depressing sort of gift. During the deep-space exploratory mission Minho had been on for most of the past few years before he’d returned and subsequently been reassigned to the _SHINee_ , his former ship had encountered a broken-down wreck of a ship slowly dying amongst the stars.

They’d tried to rescue the crew and passengers, who’d apparently miscalculated a warp jump and wound up hopelessly stranded in the middle of nowhere. They hadn’t completely succeeded.

One of the dying passengers of the ship had had an orb in her possession. Her sister had given it to Minho in thanks for his efforts to save her. He’d attempted to refuse, of course, but the sister had been adamant that the orb should go to someone who would appreciate it properly.

The fourth and final orb had been a welcome-home gift from his parents after returning from deep-space. Minho was amazed that they’d managed to find the money for it; it had taken Kibum a particularly good string of betting luck at poker to rack up enough money to purchase their second orb.

Despite the painful memories attached to the first three orbs, they were soothing to hold and contemplate. Minho suspected this had something to do with the mysterious fashion in which they were crafted.

He carefully lifted out the first two orbs now. For some reason, ever since Kibum had left, these orbs had seemed to lose some of their starlit beauty, as if they could sense that they too had been abandoned by the one who’d owned their hearts.

Minho settled himself into his pillows. Then he gazed into the heart of a flickering red giant and let himself by comforted by sights no living being could ever see.

~~~

Key slouched in a chair in the illusion room and frowned.

A series of illusory holograms danced about him, presenting him with a view of racks and racks of clothing and models and hats perched jauntily on thin air. Key waved impatiently and the sets of clothes shifted and changed, different styles and brands appearing.

A beeping alert sounded. Key sat up straight.

“Come in,” he called, pressing the button on the chair for the doors to unlock.

They hissed open and Jonghyun strode through. He ran an agitated hand through his sweaty silver bangs as he approached Key.

Key frowned. He had a feeling he knew what this was about.

“The intel just came in,” Jonghyun said without preamble. “Stage B is a go, but the repairs on the _SHINee_ are going faster than expected. They’ll be flight-ready within the week.”

Key tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. “A week isn’t long enough.”

“I know,” said Jonghyun. “We’ll have to come up with something fancy to keep them grounded.”

Key shook his head. “Won’t work. Juliette doesn’t have the _best_ space fleet, but I am not taking on an entire moon’s defense force just to keep the _SHINee_ where it is.”

“I thought you might say that.” Jonghyun swung his head sideways in a sympathetic hair-flip. “I don’t see that there’s much we _can_ do, though, otherwise.”

Key paid no attention to this pessimism. He waved a hand at the floating holograms of clothing instead. They transformed into dark military suits and white trousers, neat collared shirts, comfortable sweaters.

Jonghyun poked curiously at one of the floating caps.

“That’s a Navy captain’s hat,” he said. He glanced sideways at Key. “Don’t tell me you’d already received the intel report before I came down here.”

Key’s mouth twitched into a faint grin. “I won’t tell you, then.”

Jonghyun sighed. “So, tell me, what great strategic insights have you gained from Captain Lee Jinki’s fashion choices?”

“When off-duty, he really likes enormous clutch bags,” said Key absently, and laughed when Jonghyun glared pointedly at him. “Don’t look at me like that. _Every_ aspect of someone’s selected wardrobe is important to understanding their psyche.”

Jonghyun rolled his eyes and dropped his hand from the floating holographic cap.

“I’ll leave you to it, then. Can I assume we’ll have a plan of action in a couple hours?”

Key nodded, distracted by a pair of illusory ripped denim trousers.

“Mm-hm.”

Jonghyun smiled and turned to leave.

~~~

Taemin dug his bare toes into the thin sheets of the bed in the guest quarters he’d been assigned. He decided he didn’t like the _SHINee_ much. It was too big and too sterile, all modern angles and lines and utilitarian lack of color.

Its captain, on the other hand, was _very_ much worth liking. Taemin smiled dreamily, remembering that sweet smile and those truly amazing thighs. He had no idea who had decided to embroider an anchor on the crotch of a Navy captain’s uniform, but he very much appreciated it.

He tilted his head consideringly, eyeing the chrono on the far wall. He didn’t really have a set schedule, did he? Well, then.

He slipped his array of necklaces off and set them on the nightstand, the chains clinking gently against the plastic. Then off came the hat, then the skirt. He tugged his leggings off as well and slid his fingers into his boxers.

He was more than a little hard already, just from fantasizing about the captain’s glorious thighs. Taemin tipped his head back and allowed himself a moan as he stroked the stiffening length of his cock.

What would Jinki look like if he were here to join in the action? Taemin pictured the scene in his head- that golden hair, those intense eyes, that fucking _smile_ -

The doors hissed open just as a deep and throaty moan made its way past his lips.

The captain himself stood in the open doorway, eyes wide.

“Oh,” said Taemin, and tried to calm his breathing. “Shit. Sorry, come in. I think I forgot to lock the door.”

“Er,” said Jinki. He fidgeted, all his maddeningly polite self-control replaced by mortified awkwardness. “You know, I can come back later…”

“It’s fine,” Taemin reassured him, slipping his hand free of his boxers. “We of the Order of Juliette are very free about this kind of thing. Sex is just one of many great ways to calm the soul and put one in communion with the spirits. Come on in.”

Jinki edged inside the room, letting the doors slide shut behind him. He tugged nervously at the edge of his cuffs.

“If you’re sure…”

“Mm-hm, I am,” Taemin said. He sat upright and licked his fingers clean.

He noticed the captain _definitely_ swallowed at that, tongue poking out to lick unconsciously at his lips. Taemin felt his hopes rise. Maybe the attraction was mutual.

Or maybe not. He never had been very good at figuring people out. It was entirely possible he was mistaking Jinki’s reaction for something else entirely.

Jinki took a few steps further into the room. He took a deep breath and stood, hands folded, with that natural commanding ease that came of being the master of a Navy starship. Taemin was hard-pressed not to lick his own lips in return; the stance was incredibly attractive.

“I’m off-duty for the next several hours,” said Jinki. “I was wondering if you’d be interested in going out somewhere to get better acquainted?”

Taemin blinked at him. “Sure,” he said. “Is this a ‘good host’ invitation or a ‘you’re hot’ kinda thing?”

Jinki’s eyebrows twitched at Taemin’s bluntness. “The second one,” he said. “That is, if you don’t mind…?”

“Oh, no, of course not!” Taemin said, fumbling about for his leggings. “I think you’re hot, too. Give me a moment to get cleaned up, and then we can go?”

Jinki smiled at him. Taemin forgot about the leggings and gazed back, entranced by the expression. One could get lost in Jinki’s smile, he thought dreamily.

“I’ll wait outside for you then,” Jinki said. “Also, since you’ve been here longer, I’d appreciate any suggestions you might have for where to go.”

“I’ll think about it,” Taemin said. He waved as Jinki bowed politely and turned to leave. “See you in just a moment!”

Then he rolled out of the bed, feeling immensely pleased with himself. Who’d have known he’d get the chance to score with a sexy Navy captain on this little venture?

~~~

They wound up going to a crowded little club named the _Ring Ding Dong._ Jinki wasn’t sure if the name was sexual innuendo or not. It was locatedin a section of the city that was ever so slightly too-seedy for Jinki’s tastes. Still, he’d been worse places, and the club had a cheerful, drunken vibe that did quite a bit to lift his spirits after the woes of the past few days.

Taemin wasn’t the only member of his religious order there, which, after reading up on the Order of Juliette, didn’t surprise Jinki a bit. The Order seemed to be of the opinion that the way to achieving enlightenment and communion with the spirits was through having as much fun in life as possible, so long as that fun was moral in nature and balanced by acts of kindness towards other beings.

What did surprise Jinki was that Taemin appeared to be a bit of a lightweight. A few drinks in, he was flushed and giddy, his words cheerful and slurred. He’d also begun playing with his shot glass and gazing hopefully at the dance floor.

Jinki’s numerous skills in life did not include dancing. Still, Taemin was cute and most of the dancing seemed to consist of grinding ass-to-crotch about the floor, which didn’t take much skill to do. Jinki slid off the barstool and offered Taemin a hand.

“Dance?” he said, quirking an eyebrow up.

Taemin lit up like he’d never heard a better proposition in his life and hopped nimbly off his own stool.

“Let’s go!”

Once they’d reached the sweaty press of crowded bodies, Jinki realized that Taemin was not a good dancer- he was a _fantastic_ dancer. His slender limbs moved to the music like his blood was filled with melody, and his hips rolled and snapped to the deep, booming notes of the bass with a fluid, casual grace. Several people turned to watch him, impressed by his skill.

A jealous, scratching itch rose in Jinki’s chest at the sight. Taemin was _his_ for the night. He stepped forward and caught Taemin’s hands in his.

“I’m not great at dancing,” Jinki warned him. “Just so you know.”

Taemin beamed and tugged him closer. “That’s okay. Just stay close and have fun, Captain.”

Jinki laughed and did as ordered.

~~~

In the end, the dancing and the alcohol and Jinki’s tempting everything proved to be too much for Taemin. He turned them about on the dance floor and slipped his arms about Jinki’s waist, holding him close.

“There are rooms available in the back for rent,” he whispered in Jinki’s ear, grinning as the other shivered. “Wanna get one?”

One of Jinki’s hands slid down and around from Taemin’s hip to squeeze his ass. Taemin grinned.

“I like that idea,” Jinki breathed back, equally playful. “Show me the way.”

Taemin stepped back from the embrace, immediately missing the full-body contact of Jinki pressed against his front. Never mind; there’d be more than enough of that soon enough.

It was simplicity itself to call one of the bartenders over and ask to reserve a room for the night. Jinki insisted on paying, and Taemin let him. They followed a member of the club staff back through a maze of hallways and to a small room with a bed, a nightstand and an attached bath.

“Have fun,” said the staff member, winking lewdly, and left them.

Taemin locked the door and tucked the key in a pocket. Then he turned and yelped, finding Jinki several steps nearer to him than he’d expected him to be.

Jinki laughed softly, then pinned him to the door and kissed him.

Taemin shuddered, heat pooling in his belly at the kiss. He splayed his hands on Jinki’s back, feeling the angles of the captain's shoulder blades beneath the dark jacket. Jinki kissed him harder. Taemin hooked a leg over Jinki’s hip, moaning happily at the sensation of the stiff cock pressing eagerly against his stomach.

“It’s too hot,” Taemin breathed once they parted, panting for air.

Jinki nipped at Taemin’s earlobe. Taemin moaned again.

“Bed?” Jinki suggested, voice several notes deeper, smoother.

Taemin just nodded, his mouth occupied with sucking at the barest hint of stubble underneath Jinki’s jaw. Its faint roughness against the tip of his tongue sent tingles straight down through the shaft of his cock.

They stumbled together to the bed, shucking garments as they went. Something in Taemin’s chest warmed at how carefully Jinki handled his priestly necklaces, setting them delicately down on the night table. He wriggled out of his boxers and dragged Jinki to him.

“I like you,” said Taemin, and kissed Jinki again.

Jinki’s tongue curled through Taemin’s mouth, winding wet and slick against his own. Taemin fisted fingers in that golden hair, shivering at how silky it felt against his calloused palms. Jinki ran his own hands up and down Taemin’s bare back, making him arch and gasp as blunt fingernails skimmed against sensitive places on his skin.

Jinki’s mouth broke from his. Taemin growled with displeasure and tightened his grip in Jinki’s hair. Jinki just chuckled and kissed Taemin’s chin instead, then tugged his head back and started nibbling his way down the arch of his throat. Each little scrape of teeth was followed by the swirl of tongue and the warm pressure of lips.

Taemin imagined what else Jinki could do with that talented tongue. It made his cock throb and his breath catch and _fuck_ he needed _more_.

“Captain,” he said, pulling at Jinki’s hair from where he was licking delicious little stripes of slickness against Taemin’s collarbones. “Captain, fuck me.”

Jinki lifted his head and gazed at him with that intense, dark-eyed stare. Jinki’s cock bobbed in the air, enormous and thick and leaking. Taemin wasn’t sure what he wanted more- to taste its gorgeous length or to have it thrusting hard and deep inside him.

“You sure?” said Jinki. Taemin could barely contain himself at the sound of that voice, all velvety and low with desire.

“Mmm,” he said. He reached out and trailed one finger teasingly up the length of Jinki’s cock. Jinki gasped and shuddered. “Actually, I think I’d like it if you’d suck me a bit first.”

Jinki chuckled. “I think I’d like that too.”

Taemin shifted backwards and spread his legs. Jinki didn’t immediately take Taemin’s cock into his mouth. He kissed his way down Taemin’s front first, licking at his nipples and lingering on the sensitive dip of his groin. Taemin contorted one leg about to run his toes playfully against Jinki’s cock when he felt the captain was taking too long to appreciate how responsive Taemin’s body was to his touch. This strategy backfired when Jinki just moaned and nipped teasingly at the inside of Taemin’s thigh instead of hurrying the fuck up.

Then Taemin’s cock was in Jinki’s mouth, and he forgot all about playing with Jinki in return. Taemin’s back arched off the sheets as Jinki sucked and lapped him into a dizzy, heady haze of pleasure, tongue curling around Taemin’s cock with expert, sinful skill.

“ _Captain_ …” Taemin whimpered, hand curving about the back of Jinki’s head to urge him deeper.

Jinki obliged, taking Taemin’s cock in far enough for the sensitive tip to brush the back of Jinki’s throat. Taemin moaned aloud, flinging his head back at the sensation, heat pooling deep and low within him.

Jinki’s talented tongue licked its warm, slick way up the underside of Taemin’s shaft. There was the faintest scrape of teeth, the contrast between that sharp roughness and the smoothness of saliva and tongue too fucking much to handle. Taemin spiraled over the edge with a cry, lost in the electric thrill of lust still running up and down his spine.

His fingers tightened in Jinki’s hair as a warning, but it was too late. His hips jerked and he came hard into Jinki’s mouth.

“Sorry,” Taemin gasped, still breathless with the aftershocks of pleasure, when Jinki half-gagged and spat. “Your tongue feels too fucking good.”

Jinki laughed softly, the sound roughened by the come he’d just choked on. He licked swollen, reddened lips and dropped a hand to slide up his own large cock, hard and veined and throbbing still with need.

“You wanna give me a hand here?”

Taemin, despite the sated tiredness seeping into his bones, nodded eagerly and crawled forward to take Jinki in hand. Jinki’s cock really was huge, a nice, solidly heavy weight in Taemin’s palm. Taemin hummed contentedly- big cocks were his _favorite_ \- and began stroking Jinki off, learning moment by moment how to turn his wrist and rub his thumb over the sensitive skin in just the right ways to have Jinki panting and moaning and begging for more.

“You like that, Captain?” Taemin asked, eyes flashing wickedly up at Jinki as he dipped his hand low enough to brush teasingly against Jinki’s balls.

“Mmm,” Jinki breathed, eyes very dark. He pulled Taemin in for a quick kiss. “Don’t fucking _stop_.”

Taemin did stop, though, because he wanted to taste that beautiful huge cock with more than just his fingers. He settled down between Jinki’s muscled thighs and sucked Jinki into his mouth, humming with pleasure at the thick taste and musky scent.

“Fuck, _Taemin_ -”

Taemin hummed again. He lost his breath when Jinki’s hips jerked forward, driving his cock deep into Taemin’s mouth, sliding over the wet slickness of Taemin’s tongue. Taemin encouraged this development by hollowing his cheeks as he sucked his way just off Jinki’s cock, letting a string of saliva dangle obscenely between his swollen lips as he gazed up at Jinki through his eyelashes.

Jinki groaned, shuddering hard. He fisted a hand in Taemin’s hair, and roughly dragged him forward again. Taemin eagerly swallowed him down, eyes fluttering closed as Jinki fucked into his mouth, hard and fast and shivering on the edge of release.

Jinki’s cock hit the back of Taemin’s throat, and then he was coming with a low yell, hot jets of come spurting into Taemin’s stretched-full mouth. Taemin happily swallowed the stuff, tongue lingering on the pulsing shaft still filling his mouth up. Then he let Jinki’s cock slip slowly out from between his lips with a slick, wet slurp.

Jinki pulled him up into a kiss, tongues tangling lazily together, enjoying the aftermath of their fun. They rolled backwards onto the come-stained sheets, Jinki a deliciously solid weight on top of Taemin.

“Thank you,” Jinki whispered, nuzzling into Taemin’s shoulder.

Taemin smiled and wrapped his arms around Jinki’s chest. “You too. Wanna get some sleep? When we wake up, you can fuck me with your awesome cock.”

Jinki chuckled and turned his head to kiss Taemin’s neck.

“Sounds like a good idea to me.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” said Taemin. He giggled, a little giddy from the alcohol and the sex, and the lovely weight of Jinki on top of him.

Jinki shifted so he could kiss Taemin’s mouth again. Taemin kissed him back, and rubbed one of the soles of his feet against Jinki’s calf.

He couldn’t _wait_ ‘til morning.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~50 points to anyone who finds the Star Wars character trait I blatantly snatched.~~

* * *

Minho made his way up the maze of lifts and corridors towards the captain’s office. It had been nearly a week since they’d docked at the repair yard, and the _SHINee_ was almost flight-ready. They were, as far as Minho knew, scheduled to return to their original mission of scouting out the warp calculations for a shorter jump between two useful space routes.

Of course, the higher-ups might have something else in mind for them now, given the pirate attack. The communications array had only just been fixed that morning; thus, the captain hadn’t been able to reaffirm their orders and check in with Navy Command until then.

Once he’d arrived at the office, Minho pressed his palm to the hand sensor on the wall. The sensor beeped in acknowledgement, and the doors slid open to let him inside.

“Commander!” Jinki waved at him from his seat at the desk. “Come in.”

Minho stepped into the room and let the doors close behind him. Jinki was all but humming to himself, the lines of his face far more cheerful than they ought to have been given the situation the _SHINee_ was in.

It probably had something to do with the fact that he’d been getting laid regularly, courtesy of their visiting priest. Minho stifled his amusement and saluted a greeting.

“You called for me, sir?”

“Yes, sit down.” Jinki smiled at him. The smile was more relaxed than any Minho had seen from him in the seven months they’d worked together. Taemin must really be something in bed.

Minho took a seat in the chair in front of the desk. He said:

“Have you heard from Command yet, sir?”

Jinki sighed, some of the relaxation fading. “I have, yes. They think they know why the pirates targeted us.”

Minho leaned forward, unable to conceal his curiosity. “What? Really?”

Jinki folded his hands together. “Yes. You know, of course, that Key’s organization has been mounting hacking attacks against the Navy for quite some time now?”

Minho nodded. “In response to the increased Naval protection of shipping convoys, right?”

Jinki inclined his head in agreement. “The Navy’s reaction to these hacking attempts has been to install a special security key on all the newer makes of ships, including ours. Command thinks that Key wants to get ahold of this new security key so his hackers can come up with a counter to it. Likely he chose a newer ship operating in a remote region with no ability to call for backup, and launched an attack with the intent to board us and obtain the key.”

“But we hit his wing too hard and he freaked before he could take us out completely,” Minho finished the line of reasoning. “You think he’ll try again?”  
  
“Probably.” A slight line creased Jinki’s forehead. “The thing is, it can’t be coincidence that he chose to attack the ship _you_ serve on out of all the newer ships operating in isolated regions.”

Minho sighed. “Well, if his goal is to board us and obtain the key, it’s a possibility that he might meet me along the way.”

He had no idea _why_ Key might want to see him again, however. Jinki, fortunately, didn’t press the issue.

“True. Well, since we have no idea how to track the pirates down, we’ll be returning to our original mission. The Navy thinks Key might try to attack us again, so they’re sending backup, but it’ll take a month to get here.”

“A _month_?” Minho tried not to sound too incredulous. “If I might ask why, sir? It only takes a week from the nearest starbase.”

Jinki shrugged. “The supply of extra ships is tight, given the conflict on the Confederacy’s western border. And the star routes here are difficult to navigate, especially with the possibility that one might be ambushed by pirates along the way affecting the warp jump options.”

True enough. “What’s our timetable for departure?”

“We’ll head back out tomorrow morning,” said Jinki. “We’ll need to stay on high alert. If the _SHINee_ ’s been repaired this quickly, you can bet the _Comme des Garçons_ has been as well.”

Minho nodded. Mixed excitement and dread curdled within him. So he might come near Key again…but in another fight to the death.

Minho wasn’t sure if he was looking forward to that or not.

~~~

After he’d briefed Minho on the situation with the pirates, Jinki sat for a long time in silent contemplation, ignoring requests from the repair managers to speak with him.

As much as he wanted to avoid tangling with the _Garçons_ again, Jinki was far too good a captain to not realize that there was at least a _chance_ the pirates might not only ambush them once more, but win. Theoretically speaking, the security key would be safe even if the _SHINee_ lost and was boarded. According to protocol, the Navy crew would evacuate, then activate the ship’s self-destruct. The pirates wouldn’t be able to acquire anything but scrap metal, much less the security key.

On the other hand, Key’s network of hackers was remarkably good. Jinki wouldn’t put it past them to be able to remotely disable the self-destruct somehow. Which meant that in the unfortunate off-chance that he lost any future engagement with the pirates, they might be able to obtain the key.

Navy Command was convinced that the key was both impossible to find and impossible to spring out of its locked safe, but Jinki wasn’t so sure. He didn’t have much faith in the pompous, theoretical designs of bureaucrats and contracted civilian scientists.

No, if he was to keep the key safe, he’d have to figure out a way to do it himself. Fortunately, he hadn’t made the rank of captain for no reason. He had plenty of inventive ideas.

The question was: which one should he use?

~~~

Key stood on the lower deck of the _Garçons_ and held a star orb in his hands. This particular orb contained a starscape very similar to the one he was gazing at now on the deck viewscreen. The viewscreen display, however sharp and clear it was, could not compare to the reality of seeing space with one’s one eyes. Nor could it compare to the star orb.

Key had seventy-six star star orbs in his possession by now. None of them were stolen. Most of the money used to purchase them had been, but that was just semantics. If he sold them all, he would be rich beyond most beings’ wildest dreams.

He had no intention of selling any of his collection. He had a much better use for them in mind. Jonghyun disapproved, of course, but then Jonghyun was a mercenary bastard who couldn’t bear to imagine letting go of an opportunity to make enormous profit.

In the distance, the stars stretched faintly, then shimmered back together. The dark shape of a Navy destroyer fell out of warp.

Key tucked the star orb back into his pocket. He wasn’t worried about breaking it; the things were highly durable. He distinctly remembered the time Minho had accidentally dropped a fifty-pound suitcase on their first orb, and it hadn’t even so much as cracked.

The yellow lights around the viewscreen flashed an alert. It was time to go to the bridge and launch their second ambush. Key turned on his heel and strode crisply from the room.

~~~

“Shit,” said Jinki. “They’re here already!”

This was a useless exclamation. The crew paid no attention to it, instead launching into battle-ready mode. Jinki took a sharp breath and glanced at Minho.

“You ready for round two, Commander?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” said Minho. He looked faintly ill. Jinki couldn’t blame him; one fight with these pirates had been bad enough. “Orders?”

Jinki considered the tactical display his crew had called up on the viewscreen main. There were no places to run or hide out here in the depths of nowhere, no asteroids for cover, no floating space junk to use as part of any tactical move.

It was up to speed, targeting accuracy, fast thinking and maneuverability then. Last time the pirates had gotten the better of the _SHINee_ and, by extension, him.

Jinki did not intend to let that happen again.

“Increase to high speed directly at them,” he instructed. There was no point in starting off with useless fancy flying crap; one might as well go straight for the kill. “Helm, be ready to react to whatever moves they pull.”

“Aye, sir!”  
  
“Sir!” This was the head communications officer on the bridge. She waved for his attention. “We’re receiving an incoming signal from the _Garçons_.”

Beside him, Minho started. Jinki frowned with confusion.

“They’re signaling us? Interesting. Is the line protected?”

“Yes, sir. Our channel security will keep them from using the line as an access point to hack our systems.”

Jinki nodded. “Then put them through.”

A moment later, the face of the most infamous pirate in the Confederacy flickered onto a square of the screen. Key looked very severe and terrifying in his gray uniform and cap, with his long black hair combed neatly behind his ears and falling just past his shoulders.

Jinki was not one to be intimidated by snazzily-dressed criminals. He stood tall and stiff-backed, directed a coldly intense frown at the screen, and matched Key menacing stare for menacing stare.

“There is no need for this battle, pirate. Stand down, surrender and let us board you. Mere arrest cannot compare to us destroying you in battle.”

The edges of Key’s lips curved up into a mocking smile.

“I think not, Captain. We’ve already beaten the shit out of you once; I think we can definitely do it again.”

“On the contrary, I seem to remember you lot turning tail and running after our last encounter.” Jinki didn’t waste more time with bantering nonsense. “What do you want? Why have you contacted us?”

“I think you know why.” Key’s gaze slid past him to Minho, standing far too rigidly at Jinki’s shoulder. “Hey, lover. What’s up? Long time no see.”

Minho gritted his teeth and didn’t respond. Jinki’s eyes narrowed.

“If flirting’s all you have in mind, I think that’s been _quite_ enough of that.” He raised a hand at the communications crew, ignoring both Key’s amused smirk and the tension practically boiling out of Minho’s taut muscles. “Cut the connection.”

Key laughed. The laughter was cut off a mere second later as the square on the viewscreen returned to a navigation display.

Jinki laid a brief hand on Minho’s shoulder. His second relaxed, though only slightly. Then Jinki turned back to face the viewscreen.

“Increase speed!”

 _This_ time he was going to crush them for sure.

~~~

“Meet them in a side sweep,” Key ordered, settling back in his captain’s chair the moment the _SHINee_ cut the connection. “Then do a few slashing runs. Remember to target their warp drive this time and be fucking careful. We took them by surprise last time and they weren’t ready for us. This time they’ll be smarter.”

He glanced over at Jonghyun, who was for once not manning one of the weapons panels, but sitting strapped into one of the smaller chairs on the lower part of the bridge intended for reserve officers.

“Any word?” Key asked him.

Jonghyun shook his head. “I sent warning, though, and I’m connected. If anything happens, I’ll know.”

That would have to do for now. There would be time for worrying later; the battle was now. Key already felt a little off-balance at seeing Minho again after all these years, even though that had been the very point of signaling the _SHINee_. Fucking feelings.

“We’ll be in range in fifteen seconds, Cap’n!” called the main helmsman.

Key sat straighter. “Weapons, ready!”

~~~

Taemin weaved his way about the _SHINee_ , dodging harried crewmembers none too pleased at having a hitchhiking priest underfoot. Still, none of them told him to piss off. They respected one who was in communion with the spirits.

He squeezed one of the symbols hanging from the chains. Being a priest was awesome.

A good part of him wanted to be on the bridge, watching the action. Taemin _loved_ space fights. Nothing was more thrilling than staring Death in the eye while the stars and blackness of space spun about him. Even his priestly privileges wouldn’t permit him access to the bridge during a battle, however.

That was all right. He had other important things to do.

Taemin turned the corridor and wandered purposefully down the gleaming halls of the _SHINee_.

~~~

Minho braced his feet on the bridge deck as the battle intensified.

Several minutes had gone by without either ship landing a decisive hit on the other. The _SHINee_ ’s warp drive shield had taken several bad streams of laser-fire, but none of it had inflicted any serious damage. Understanding that this time, the pirates’ objective was to take out the drive, Jinki had ordered the helm to try and keep the ship rolled away from the _Garçons_ to protect the drive shield.

Minho had a feeling the tactic wasn’t going to work for long. He recognized the series of maneuvers the _Garçons_ was performing now.

“Sir,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the din of alarms and hissed communication among the bridge crew. “I think he’s trying for a Sherlock gambit.”

Jinki’s eyebrows arched, clearly taken aback. “Are you sure?”

Minho nodded. “Aye, sir.”

Jinki considered him for a moment. Minho understood his hesitation; a Sherlock gambit was a sequence of very complex feints between two opposing ships, like playing an elaborate and deadly game of chicken. It wasn’t frequently used because it took a very high degree of skill at predicting the enemy while being unpredictable oneself to pull off, particularly when the ships were not matched in terms of similar size and maneuverability.

But Key always had been something of a tactical genius. If anyone could work a successful Sherlock gambit, it would be him. Minho just hoped Jinki had the skills to break Key out of the gambit without getting the _SHINee_ destroyed in the process. Minho himself almost certainly didn’t have said skills. The more Key knew someone, the better he was at confusing the fuck out of them, and Key knew Minho very well indeed.

Jinki was already turning back to the crew. “We’re going into a Clue counter!” he yelled. “I need everyone _quiet_ and paying attention. Teamwork and quick reactions to my commands are essential. Helm, bring us up forty degrees and prepare to roll.”

Minho didn’t miss the way Jinki swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing nervously, after he gave the order. The captain was clearly not as confident about the prospect of going head-to-head with the Almighty Key as he’d like the crew to believe.

Minho resisted the urge to cross his fingers for luck and went to go field a query from the weapons officers.

~~~

Jonghyun clutched the small communications device close as Key began barking sharp orders to react to the _SHINee_ ’s sudden countermoves. He ached to be at the weapons panel, but Key didn’t trust anyone else not to get distracted at a crucial moment while doing Jonghyun’s very important task.

Very important and very _boring_ task. He sighed. Well, there was one good thing about being stuck on the bridge in essentially no more than observer status. He got to watch Key in his element as captain and tactician. It was, as always, an amazing sight.

Equally amazing was how quickly the crew followed commands and worked together. In a battle as fast-paced as this, any hesitation at a captain’s order could cost lives. The crew also had to be creative and quick-thinking in their own right as they figured out how to implement the captain’s general orders. Everyone had to work as one unit.

The _Garçons_ ’ crew, like its captain, was very good indeed.

“Drop eighty aft! Target the bridge cover. Spin three-twenty and roll. Keep the bridge under fire. Up! Up!”

Jonghyun grinned, despite his boredom. Although the _SHINee_ was taking a massive hammering, it was still giving the _Garçons_ more than a run for its money.

Worthy opponents were so much _fun_. He hadn’t realized that this Captain Lee Jinki possessed enough skill to match _Key_ move for move.

Of course, that couldn’t last forever.

~~~

Jinki was sweating badly. He hadn’t been in a fight this mentally draining since he’d taken his final exams years ago at the Academy, and those exams had been _designed_ to make everyone who took them almost fail.

Key had given up the Sherlock gambit some minutes hence and gone for the Medusa series of maneuvers instead. These were designed to first blind and distract the _SHINee_ with laser-fire and accumulated damage, thencripple its maneuverability by destroying key sections of its infrastructure.

The pirates were fortunately still stuck on the first stage of the ploy, termed the Shine stage. Jinki needed to drive them off before they could get to the Dangerous stage and do actual damage to the _SHINee_ ’s critical systems.

Jinki was glad he had Minho on board. Otherwise, he’d never have pieced together the distinct movements of the _Garçons_ and deduced the general tactic Key was employing at any one time. Minho, whether he knew it or not, was going to be a very worthy captain one day.

The _Garçons_ abruptly spiraled away, going for a huge loop out of range of the _SHINee_ ’s weapons. Jinki frowned.

“Commander,” he said. “Any ideas?”

Minho scrunched his brows together, staring hard at the tactical display. Jinki, too, tried to think. What kind of maneuver began with this sort of loop? This wasn’t atmospheric combat; there was no gravity to take advantage of here.

The _Garçons_ slowly looped farther away, picking up speed as she went.

~~~

“They’re just sitting there,” said Jonghyun, pointing out the obvious.

Key ignored him, eyes fixed on the viewscreen. Jonghyun squirmed in his seat, impatient.

“Captain-”

“Shut up, don’t distract me,” said Key. He took a breath. “Helm, once we finish our loop, go straight at them with our fore. Once we get near enough, they’ll grab us with a tractor beam. Don’t cut speed. They’ll freak and move out of the way. Whichever way they go, accelerate like hell over their top and accomplish orbit. Then Weapons, strafe the shit out of their warp drive.”

The helmsman twitched. “Sir, how do you know they’ll use a tractor beam on us?”

“Captain Lee wears collared _Replay_ -brand shirts and his commander wears his socks until they wear out, that’s why,” Key snapped. “Don’t question me; I know what I’m doing.”

The helmsman didn’t look much reassured, but he returned his attention to his panel. Jonghyun glanced at Key. He usually trusted his captain with his life; hell, he’d been the one to persuade Key to put his talents to a use better than any the Navy could offer him. At the same time, if Key was wrong about this, it would spell the end for all of them.

But Jonghyun wasn’t taking an active role in this battle. Panicking was useless and counterproductive. He returned to staring hard at the device in his hands instead, and tried to calm his breathing.

~~~

“Buying time,” Jinki was saying slowly, testing out ideas as the _Garçons_ finished curving through the bottom arc of its loop. “That’s what they’re doing. But for what?”

Buying time…Minho thought back to his knowledge of Key, the war games they’d played together, the tests they’d studied for at the Academy, the missions they’d worked as part of a crew. There was one thing Key had liked to do, a particularly complex set of maneuvers that, like the Sherlock gambit, could only be successfully carried through by a master at quickly reactive tactical insight.

“Lucifer,” Minho said, breaking into Jinki’s muttered musings. “Sir, he’s going to try a Lucifer engagement.”

Jinki went pale and stared at him. “A _Lucifer_? Are you serious?”

Minho nodded. “It makes sense. He needs time to warm up the tractor beam, and, well, it’s a move he always liked using. Not a lot of people are good at the counter.”

Jinki visibly swallowed. Minho knew exactly why. The Lucifer engagement was so named because of how devastatingly it had been used in battle against the Confederacy back when tractor beams were still a new technology. It consisted of ships grabbing each other with their tractor beams and attempting to fling each other off balance.

The counter involved using a tractor beam against another tractor beam, which dissolved both beams. This, of course, required some very tricky flying and calculated application of beams. Very few could pull it off.

They just had to hope that Jinki could.

“Systems, warm the tractor beam,” Jinki ordered, tugging at his sweaty collar. “Helm, get ready to do some fancy flying.”

They waited.

~~~

“Tractor beam detected!” someone from systems called. “Captain, you were right!”

“I’m always right,” Key said smugly. “Increase speed.”

The _Garçons_ accelerated forward, aided by the pull of the tractor beam. The _SHINee_ had no choice but to shift aside lest it tug the _Garçons_ straight into its belly.

And the most efficient way to dodge was to tip over onto its side in a quarter roll clockwise.

“Arc!” Key was yelling, fingers knotted tight together. “Arc starboard! Weapons, target the drive _now_!”

The _Garçons_ , instead of hurtling past where the _SHINee_ had just been, curved over and followed it in its roll. The _SHINee_ went into an even faster roll, trying to keep its topside with the warp drive facing away from the other ship. The _Garçons_ had much more momentum-built-up speed, however, and revolved fast enough around the rotating _SHINee_ so that in a matter of seconds, it was briefly locked in stationary orbit with its guns facing the _SHINee_ ’s drive.

“Fire!”

The command was unnecessary; the _Garçons’_ weapons crew was already doing their job. Laser-fire pierced through the _SHINee_ ’s warp drive shield and shredded the drive. Explosions steamed forth and were promptly snuffed out in the vacuum of space.

The _SHINee_ finally seemed to get itself together and shot straight backwards in an undignified reverse, out of range of the _Garçons_.

Jonghyun glanced at the communications device on his lap. He groaned.

“No go, Captain,” he called. “More time needed. It’d be pointless to try and board them now.”

Key let loose a very inventive string of colorful curses. Then he raised his voice.

“All right, primary objective accomplished. Set course for Juliette and warp us out!”

The stars stretched into lines around them.

~~~

Minho felt a particularly awful sense of déjà vu as he watched the _Garçons_ streak off into warp.

“What the _hell_?” said Jinki. “They knocked out our drive and had us running. Why the _fuck_ would they leave again?”

“Who knows,” said Minho. His shoulders slumped, exhausted. “I apologize, Captain. I was mistaken about their strategy.”

Jinki glanced at him and shook his head. “Don’t beat yourself up about it, Commander. It was a good a guess as any.”

This didn’t help much. Minho knew Jinki was saying it only to be nice. If the _SHINee_ hadn’t, in anticipation of a Lucifer engagement, grabbed the _Garçons_ with the tractor beam, the pirate ship would not have been able to springboard into orbit with enough velocity to take out the drive as quickly as they had. Their loss was Minho’s fault.

Worse, he’d _known_ something like this might happen. Hadn’t he just been remembering that Key’s ploys worked best on someone he understood? Key must have fucking _known_ Minho would mistake that loop for the beginning of a Lucifer, and used that knowledge to construct a more devastating attack.

If Minho had just left the battle planning to Jinki, this never would have happened.

“I mean it, Choi,” said Jinki, quiet and sharp. “It was my call as captain.”

“But if you hadn’t listened to me, sir-”

“Then they might have fucked us over in a different way.” Jinki adjusted his cap. “What’s done is done and no point fretting over it. For whatever reason, they were only interested in knocking out our drive. We’re alive, the casualties are minimal, and we have a two-week sub-light journey back to Juliette to prepare for.” He grimaced. “We’re going to drain the Navy’s budget getting fixed up at that overpriced hole of a repair yard…”

Minho let the demands of duty sweep over him and distract him from his failure.

~~~

Jonghyun left the bridge in the hands of a capable officer and went to confer with Key in order to re-draft their plans for obtaining the security key from the _SHINee_. This whole business of key-acquisition was, after all, very important. It was very difficult to prey on a shipping convoy under the protection of a cluster of Navy ships. While the _Garçons_ was distracted with defending itself against the military, the freight ships would simply warp out and make their escape.

If the _Garçons_ had the ability to immediately cripple the Navy ships _without_ getting into a firefight- such as by hacking them and freezing their systems- it would make capturing and looting freighters much easier.

Of course, they had to figure out a counter to this new security key first. And getting ahold of the key was taking much too long. Either the _SHINee_ ’s general security was better than they’d thought, or Jonghyun and Key were going to have to kick some useless minion ass once the key had been obtained.

Jonghyun found Key in the captain’s quarters, curled up in a basket chair and staring at one of his many star orbs. Jonghyun rolled his eyes.

“You’re the most sentimental idiot I’ve ever met, did you know that?” he asked conversationally, flopping down onto Key’s cot.

Key set the star orb aside on his dresser. “Don’t talk to your captain like that or I’ll toss you out an airlock,” he said without any real threat. “I have a mission for you.”

“Oh?” Jonghyun swung his dangling feet about. “What kind of mission?”

Key grinned, though it looked a little forced. “The kind where you get to go bar-hopping, that’s what.”

Jonghyun raised an eyebrow. “So we really are going to Juliette, then?”

Key nodded. “I was thinking of letting some of the _SHINee_ ’s crew catch a glimpse of us. Once they know we’re on the same moon, they’ll probably stay longer than it takes them to fix their ship in order to hunt us down.”

“Good plan, so long as we actually manage to evade capture.” Jonghyun paused. “And by ‘some of the _SHINee’s_ crew’, I presume you mean that tall-ass commander you’re still in love with?”

Key’s ears went red. Jonghyun smirked shamelessly.

“And here _I_ was about to offer you a chance to chat up a certain pretty priest,” Key said, delicately inspecting his fingernails. “Ah, well, I guess I might have to scrap that idea…”

Jonghyun threw a pillow at him. Key yelped and ducked.

“Don’t give me sass, kid,” Jonghyun said, then had to duck in return when Key flung the pillow back with unnecessary force. “Oy! We’re in private; I’m allowed to call you that!”

Key rolled his eyes. “Sure, whatever.”

A smile lingered at the edges of his lips, however. Satisfied that Key had been shaken out of his maudlin mood, Jonghyun leaned back on his elbows and changed the subject.

“So, you wanna tell me how you read Captain Lee Jinki’s mind earlier? How the hell did you know they’d try a Lucifer on us?”

Key snorted and cracked his knuckles. Jonghyun winced at the sound.

“They didn’t try one on us; they thought we were trying one on them,” Key said. “And I told you how I knew.”

“Yeah, some bullshit about shirts and socks.” Jonghyun eyed him expectantly. “Gonna give me a real answer or not?”  
  
“That _is_ a real answer,” Key said. He had a smug look on his face, however, forever pleased at an opportunity to show off. “Look, _Replay_ -brand shirts are really uncomfortable to wear. They’re very stylish, but they’re also stiff and itchy. Our Captain Lee only wears them when he wants to look nice in public. Otherwise, he prefers comfy tunics.”

“Right, so…?”

“ _And_ ,” Key continued. “He didn’t start wearing the _Replay_ shirts until his early twenties, likely because his very fashionable boyfriend at that time also wore them. Thus, one can conclude that he doesn’t really like the shirts, but he’s willing to wear them because he has it on good authority that they look good. He’s the sort of captain who accepts advice when he thinks it comes from a trustworthy source, rather than closed-mindedly sticking to his own ideas, even when it’s a little uncomfortable to take that advice.”

Jonghyun was beginning to understand where this was going. He tilted his head, gesturing for Key to go on.

Key crossed one leg over the other. “Anyway, we also have a commander who wears his socks until they wear out. He’s comfortable with things the way they are. It doesn’t occur to him to consider that adapting to a new situation is a good idea until his socks have actual holes in them. Thus, he expected me to strategize like I’ve always strategized, because he’s comfortable believing my actions would be the same as they’ve always been.”

Jonghyun grinned. “And the Captain would think that his commander had a special insight into your mind because he knows you, thus making him a trustworthy source to take advice from.”

“Yes.” Key grinned back, pleased with himself. “I let Minho establish himself as an authority on my thought processes by doing what he expected for the first part of the battle. Then I tricked him into thinking I was going to pull a Lucifer because that’s what he’s seen me do before, and of course the captain accepted Minho’s word on the matter, even if he was nervous about it.”

“And we finished off by using their counterattack against them,” Jonghyun concluded. “Shit, Key.”

Key laughed and stretched his arms above his head. “It wasn’t that hard to figure out how to outwit them. You should compliment our helm and weapons people. They’re the ones who had to pull off some tough as hell maneuvers.”

“I already did,” Jonghyun assured him. He paused. “How long do you think it’ll take the _SHINee_ to make it back to Juliette at sub-light? Two weeks?”  
  
“Yeah, two weeks tops,” Key agreed. He sighed sympathetically at Jonghyun’s expression. “I know. It’ll be a hell of a wait. But I promise it’ll be worth it.”

Jonghyun smiled. “I believe you.” He slid off the bed and headed towards the doors. “Let me know if there’s anything else that needs doing before we arrive.”

Key nodded. “Sure.”

The last thing Jonghyun saw before the doors closed behind him was Key lifting the star orb into his hands again, a wistful expression crossing his face.

Jonghyun rolled his eyes and headed down the corridor. Key was lucky none of the rest of his crew knew much of a hopeless romantic he was. Jonghyun only put up with it because he knew it wouldn’t affect how Key ran the ship. There was no way Jonghyun would ever have suggested he serve under Key’s command otherwise.

Or maybe he would’ve decided to let Key become his captain anyway. Key was fucking _brilliant_. Life was never boring with him around, and excitement was what Jonghyun desired most in life.

Well, that and money, and there was plenty of _that_ to go around on a successful pirate ship as well.

Jonghyun began to whistle a merry sailing song as he sauntered through the ship.

~~~

The slow trip back to Juliette was indescribably boring.

Taemin occupied himself by kneeling in one of the interfaith places of worship in the _SHINee_ and praying like a dutiful priest. He also wandered the ship looking at things a great deal, of course, because he had to, but that was boring too. The only really interesting periods where those he spent with the captain.

The only thing was, Taemin could tell that Jinki wasn’t happy about the outcome of the battle. It put a definite damper on conversation to have the good captain so gloomily distracted.

Fortunately, Taemin had a plan for that. He wasn’t sure it was necessarily a _good_ plan, since his plans tended to generally suck and backfire, but it was a plan nonetheless.

Thus, he wandered into the captain’s quarters one off-duty cycle, and started explaining said plan.

“Captain,” he said, climbing comfortably onto Jinki’s bed while Jinki, seated at the small desk in the corner, raised an eyebrow at him. “I’ve got something to cheer you up.”

“Really,” said Jinki. He smiled; it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Don’t tell me; you’ve magically found a way to fix the warp drive.”

“Don’t be silly,” Taemin admonished. He crossed his legs. “I’ve found some spirits to raise your mood.”

Jinki’s eyebrow arched amazingly higher. “Er, I have told you I’m not that kind of religious, right? I respect your beliefs, but communing with the spirits isn’t really how I roll.”

Taemin stared at him, confused. “Why do you have to be my kind of religious to enjoy spirits?”

Jinki stared back. “Well, why else would they comfort you? I’m not much for the deity-centric doctrines of faith, so I don’t quite see how praying that way would help any.”

“Deity…? These aren’t that- oh. _Oh._ ” Taemin suddenly understood what Jinki was talking about. He laughed. “I didn’t mean spirits, Captain, I meant _spirits_.”

He fished a clear vial out of his shirt and held it out. It contained the finest liquor- _spirits_ , one might say- that he’d been able to bribe out of a certain bartender on Juliette. Taemin had had a feeling the alcohol might come in handy.

And it did. Jinki took one look at the vial and tipped his head back, laughing so hard he nearly fell out of his chair. Taemin pouted and shook the vial.

“C’mon, I promise the spirits are excellent,” he coaxed..

“The _alcoholic_ spirits,” said Jinki, and doubled over, wheezing with laughter. “Taemin, you’re my favourite priest _ever_.”

Taemin beamed at him. “Thanks!”

Jinki gasped for breath and smiled at him. Taemin happily smiled back as the captain then got to his feet, crossed the room and bent to kiss him hard.

Taemin wrapped his legs around Jinki’s waist and decided that he should _definitely_ make plans more often.

~~~

Minho sat in the ship mess and stabbed at a cube of freeze-dried Sagittarian steak. He wished like hell that he had something to _do_ other than sit around and wait for the _SHINee_ to finish its two-week journey back to Juliette. He desperately needed something to take his mind off Key.

More specifically, how _pissed_ he was at Key.

It wasn’t fair that Key had broken his heart by leaving him without a word, then turned up several years later, tried to kill them all and purred _lover_ at him over the ship’s comm. Fucking bastard. Minho wanted to punch the shit out of him.

That, or pin him to a wall and fuck him senseless.

Actually the second option was sounding better and better the more he thought about it. That gray uniform had looked _amazing_. So had the long sweep of Key’s dark hair and the intensity of those beautiful, stunning eyes. What kind of pirate wore three tons of eyeliner, anyway, and had the audacity look absolutely fuckable while being the worst asshole in the galactic plane?

Key, that was who. Minho groaned and jammed a chopstick straight through a cube of meat.

Key was _Key_ , he tried to remind himself. Key was not Minho’s Kibum, not the pretty, ballsy as fuck cadet who’d stolen his heart while they were both still teenagers. Kibum had been sweet and kind and fun and a Navy _sailor_. Key was a ruthless criminal who shot people and stole things for a living. Minho was _not_ in love with a glorified thief with zero moral scruples.

He thought about Key’s brilliance in the fight today, and the confident way he’d bantered with Jinki, and the inviting bow of his lips as he spoke. Minho could still hear the wickedly playful tones of Key’s voice in his head. _Gods_ , if it hadn’t been fifty shades of impossible, Minho would have begged Key to take him right then and there on the _SHINee_ ’s bridge deck.

Minho violently twisted the chopstick around. Fuck everything. He was totally still in love with that glorified thief.

“I am so, so screwed,” he muttered, and stuffed the steak cube in his mouth.

“What’s this about screwing?”

Minho nearly choked on the meat, startled at the cheerful question. He looked up to see Taemin set a tray of his own down and swing onto the chair across from him at the long mess table, priestly necklaces clinking together.

“Nothing,” said Minho after he’d swallowed down his steak. He tried not to stare at the rather obvious bite-mark on Taemin’s neck. “What’s up?”

“I’ve been praying for guidance,” said Taemin seriously. He twirled his spoon in his soup. “I’ve noticed that your spirit is suffering and you are in need of much help.”

Minho frowned. “Thank you for your concern, but I’m fine.”

“Oh, please,” Taemin scoffed. He blew on the soup in attempt to cool the steaming liquid down. “You’ve been moping about this ship since I got here. I knew the moment I met you that your soul was in pain.”

“Really, I promise I’m _fine_ ,” said Minho. He didn’t need some sanctimonious priest interfering in his private woes.

Besides, unless Taemin could wind back time, there really wasn’t anything he could do about Minho’s issues.

Taemin gave up on the soup and began peeling open a carton of fruit milk. “You shouldn’t lie to a priest,” he chided, tapping the carton against the table. “I can see right through you. Besides, the spirits have blessed me with the answer to your suffering.”

“I highly doubt that,” Minho couldn’t help but to say.

“Oh, ye of little faith,” sighed Taemin. “We of the Order of Juliette know that the best way to remove the blight of misery from one’s soul is to have fun. The particular type of fun, of course, depends on the type of misery. For your misery, the spirits have deemed the answer to be going out and ‘ _dancing_ ’ with someone you like.”

Taemin waggled his eyebrows in a very weirdly suggestive manner at the word ‘dancing’. Minho tried not to have inappropriate thoughts about the deep, sexy purr of Key’s voice.

He said, “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s not a great abundance of nightclubs on this ship.”

Taemin blinked at him. “Well, no.” He stuck a straw into the carton of milk. “But once we get back to Juliette, there will be.”

“I have things to do,” Minho lied. He prodded unenthusiastically at another cube of steak. “Work, you know.”

“You can come with the Captain and me,” Taemin said, ignoring this obvious untruth. “I talked to him about it already. He thinks cheering you up is a great idea.”

Minho didn’t doubt it. No captain wanted a second in command who was perpetually gloomy, especially since, given rank considerations, the captain and his second tended to be closer friends with each other than any of the other sailors on the ship.

All the same, Minho wasn’t sure that going out with the intention of finding a one night stand or whatever would help his mood. If anything, it might depress him more by reminding him of what he’d lost with Key.

On the other hand, he had tried dating some in the years since Key had left him. It hadn’t _all_ been terrible. And Taemin was right- there was no point in moping around the ship forever.

“All right,” said Minho, giving in. “I’ll come with you guys.”

“Yay!” said Taemin happily, and sucked at his milk.

~~~

The manager of _Romeo’s Repair Yard_ was more than happy to book the _SHINee_ for another repair job. Navy Command, not so much, given how expensive the repairs were and how disheartening it was for a Navy vessel to lose to the same lowlife pirate twice in under two weeks.

Jinki was beginning to see how Key had earned his nickname of _Almighty_.

At least this time, the only thing truly destroyed was the warp drive. Jinki still had no idea _why_ the pirates had left the rest of the ship intact without trying to board them, but then, there was a lot about this whole mess that he didn’t understand. It didn’t particularly matter. They had about four or five days before the ship was fixed again, then they were scheduled to orbit Juliette until the Navy backup arrived.

The next time he faced Key in battle, the pirate would be outnumbered three to one. Jinki planned on exploding the ever-loving fuck out of the _Comme des Garçons_ at that battle.

In the meantime, it was back to paperwork, agonizing over outsiders messing with his baby’s innards, and yet more bloody _waiting_.

There was one good thing to look forward to, of course, and that was shore leave on Juliette, since they didn’t have much else to do. Jinki was eager to go out clubbing with Taemin again. He remembered very vividly how well the priest had body-rolled on the dance floor of the _Ring Ding Dong._  Jinki could think of several excellent uses Taemin’s skilled hips could be put to in addition to just dancing. He suspected Taemin would be only too happy to demonstrate said uses.

He was also pleased that Minho would be coming with him. Taemin was right, some downtime would probably do wonders for Minho’s hang-ups about Key.

They’d need to be functioning at full efficiency when they next tangled with the pirates, after all. Jinki didn’t want a 2IC distracted by the enemy’s face, pretty though it was.

~~~

Key stood in front of his mirror and adjusted his bangs.

The two weeks waiting for the _SHINee_ to arrive back at Juliette had been spent in an agony of impatience. Key knew he’d annoyed Jonghyun half to death with constant demands for opinions on clothing and cosmetic choices, but he’d taken smug pleasure in not caring. He wanted to look as perfect as he could when he finally saw Minho again.

And he’d _finally_ received word that Minho would be going out tonight. It was time to make his move.

He’d thought through most of the planned encounter very thoroughly, including how to prevent Minho and anyone else from capturing and arresting him. There was really only one thing he was still waffling about doing.

Key eyed the condom packet and small tube of lube lying in front of him on his dresser. He highly doubted they would be necessary. There’d been years to extinguish whatever desire Minho had once felt for him. He had long since become resigned to the depressing fact that Minho probably even hated him by now.

All the same, a part of Key longed to bring the items along. Who knew, a miracle might yet happen.

He snorted and left off with the bangs. Only the religious believed in miracles, and Key was not by any means religious, despite the prayer beads his grandmother kept sending him and Jonghyun’s occasional attempts to drag him into the _Gar _ç_ ons'  _chapel.

Key pocketed the lube and condom anyway. Miracles might not exist, but irrational hope certainly did, even in the heart of a hardened pirate.

~~~

Jonghyun lounged in a circular booth in a corner of the _Ring Ding Dong_ , rolling a bottle of beer between his palms and frowning at the seething mass of people blocking his view of the entrance.

This particular scheme had been planned very well, of course. Key had stationed his people discreetly about the club, all of them armed and ready for action should any sailors from the _SHINee_ get too interested in arresting pirates. Said pirates were more than happy to be given orders to essentially just party hard all night. The club management was less pleased, but after Key had offered a substantial bribe and Jonghyun had sweet-talked the owner a bit, they’d given in.

Money and flirtatious flattery got one pretty much everywhere in life.

Jonghyun forced his gaze away from the crowd and towards the bar. Key was sitting on a bar stool, ankles delicately crossed, playing some sort of game on his personal communicator. He looked perfectly confident and in control. There was nothing about him to suggest he’d had a breakdown in front of Jonghyun just before they’d left the _Garçons’_ , demanding to know if the angle he’d settled his cap on made his face look weird.

Jonghyun had assured him that his face always looked weird and had promptly been punched rather painfully in the arm. He’d then rolled his eyes and dragged his very nervous captain down the landing ramp.

Key was an excellent actor, though; there was no sign of nerves on him now. Jonghyun turned his gaze back to the hordes of dancing bodies interfering with his sight of the doors. He’d need his own acting skills in a bit. The Navy sailors wouldn’t be very pleased if they noticed him being friendly with their hitchhiking priest, after all.

Jonghyun sighed and brought the bottle of beer to his mouth, twisting the already-loosened cap off with his teeth. He chewed on the cap, giving in to the habitual need to gnaw on something to calm his impatient nerves.

The crowd shifted, turning with the beat of the bass. Jonghyun caught a flash of bright red and shot to his feet, only to sit down again when it turned out to be just one of their own crew, scaled fingers pressed against the waist of a very pretty local.

Jonghyun crunched down harder on the bottle cap. What had he been thinking? Taemin wouldn’t be wearing red. Priests of the Order of Juliette didn’t.

He slumped into his seat at the booth and heaved a deep sigh.

~~~

Minho was beginning to have second thoughts about this.

He liked his captain a lot. He even liked Taemin a good deal. The priest was a very nice person, if kind of very odd at times. The problem was: it wasn’t so much fun when they were together.

Being a third wheel _sucked_.

Jinki and Taemin were currently strolling just ahead of him, hand in hand. Taemin was telling the story of his childhood on Juliette. Something about being a dancer in a club and being in very high demand for his considerable skills.

“So,” Jinki was saying as they crossed the street, passing by crowds of scantily-dressed people in floppy hats out for the night. “What made you decide to become a priest?”

Taemin shrugged. “I was always religious,” he said comfortably. “Someone said I’d make a good priest, and I thought it would be fun, so I decided to be one. It’s nice to be able to make a difference and enjoy what you’re doing at the same time.”

Jinki smiled and tugged him closer to press a quick kiss to his cheek.

“You’re sweet,” he said affectionately.

Taemin beamed. Jinki tightened their fingers together. Taemin beamed more. Minho sighed, stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets, and wished desperately that he was somewhere else.

“Sir,” he said, breaking into Taemin and Jinki’s moment. “Taemin. Maybe I should go back to the ship…”

Taemin slid his fingers free of Jinki’s grip. He reached back to tug Minho forward so that he was walking between them, one arm tucked through Taemin’s own.

“No, no, no, don’t go! Are we being awkward? We’ll leave you alone as _soon_ as we get to the club so you don’t have to be annoyed by us.”

Minho winced at Taemin’s appealing tone. “You’re not annoying-”

“We are.” Jinki nudged him with one shoulder. “Relax, Commander.” His eyes twinkled. “That’s an order.”

Minho sighed and tugged at his suspenders. “I’ll try, sir.”

~~~

Only a few moments after they squeezed through the crowded entrance to the _Ring Ding Dong_ , the three of them split up. Minho headed off vaguely in the direction of the bar. Taemin immediately tugged Jinki towards the dance floor.

“C’mon,” Taemin said eagerly. “I _love_ this song!”

Jinki laughed and let himself be hauled by the wrist towards the densest mass of sweaty bodies and grinding hips. As soon as they reached the edge of the glittering dance square, Taemin slid into motion, body rocking to the beat as if he had been born for nothing else.

“Don’t just _stand_ there,” said Taemin impatiently, when Jinki made no move to join him. “Dance with me!”

Jinki sighed and stepped forward. Taemin put a hand on his hip and swiveled him around. There was suddenly a deliciously hot sensation of Taemin doing body rolls just behind him, hands sliding teasingly down Jinki’s thighs.

Jinki gave up on his lingering embarrassment at his lack of dancing skills and rolled his hips back into Taemin’s own. They established a rhythm in no time, separating to turn with the flow of the crowd about the dancefloor, then pressing close to other again, and repeat. Occasionally they stepped on each other’s feet in an effort not to trip on some of the other dancers on the floor.

Once the song ended, with Jinki’s ass pressed shamelessly against Taemin’s half-hard crotch, Taemin wrapped his arms around Jinki’s waist and settled his chin on Jinki’s shoulder.

“I’m thirsty,” he purred into Jinki’s ear.

Jinki shivered and rubbed his thumbs against Taemin’s wrist.

“For what, a drink or my cock?” he asked, tipping his head back onto Taemin’s shoulder.

Taemin giggled and nipped at his earlobe. “Both?”

Jinki grinned. “Shall we try the drinks first, then?”

“Mm-hmm, sounds good.”

Jinki suppressed a sigh of disappointment when Taemin detached himself from the embrace. He glanced back to make sure Taemin was following, then started carefully shoving his way through the crowd to get to the bar.

They had gotten perhaps halfway there when Taemin stopped him with a hand on his elbow.

“Captain, wait! Let’s go this way; I think I see someone I know.”

Jinki, who was more than a little thirsty himself, frowned and peered through the mass of people, trying to figure out who Taemin was pointing at. There was a solitary figure in a black turtleneck in one of the circular booths at the edge of the large room waving in their general direction. Maybe that was who Taemin meant?

“How about I go grab us some drinks and then go meet you and your friend?” Jinki suggested.

“No, I can get the drinks,” Taemin said immediately. “I think I might know the bartender on tonight. I may be able to talk her into giving us a discount.” He grinned. “Then we can drink _more_.”

Jinki rolled his eyes, but didn’t argue with this excellent plan.

“Is that your friend over there, in the turtleneck?” he asked instead, gesturing over at the far side of the room.

Taemin squinted that way. “Yeah, I think so,” he said. He patted Jinki’s arm. “I’ll be back in a bit!”

Jinki watched him slip neatly through the crowd in the direction of the bar. He himself sighed, adjusted the collar of the uniform he hadn’t bothered to change from, and started making his way towards Taemin’s friend.

It took him perhaps five minutes to get there, after having to duck around a particularly rambunctious group of drunken local students. Jinki dodged them, crossed the rest of the way over to the circular booth, and waved.

“Hey,” he said. “I’m with the priest Lee Taemin; he sent me over here?”

The man in the turtleneck grinned and offered him a lazy tilt of his head in greeting.

“What’s up, sailor?” he said cheerfully. “The name’s Jonghyun.”

“Jinki,” said Jinki, lowering himself onto the side of the booth opposite Jonghyun. “Taemin went to get some drinks. Then he’ll be over.”

“I figured,” said Jonghyun. He was still staring at Jinki with a disturbingly intent expression. “Hey, aren’t you the captain of that Navy ship?”

Jinki had taken his rank insignia off his uniform before going out. He frowned.

“How…?”

“I know things,” Jonghyun said vaguely. He laughed and flipped his bangs to the side. “Cheers, Captain. How do you like Juliette?” He smirked. “Your second time here in two weeks, isn’t it?”

Jinki pasted a thin smile across his face. This friend of Taemin’s seemed like more than a bit of an asshole, bringing up his losses to the pirates like that.

“We like to contribute to the local economy,” Jinki said lightly, playing with his jacket cuffs. “The Confederacy lives to serve all its citizens.”

Jonghyun, to his surprise, actually laughed at these words.

“You’re a good sort, for a sailor,” Jonghyun said, and took a swig of the half-empty beer bottle he was holding. “Don’t have as much a stick up your ass as most of the others I’ve met.”

Jinki, feeling both very irritated at Jonghyun’s condescending manner and very light-headed still from the sensation of dancing with Taemin, found himself snarking back before his self-control kicked in.

“No,” he said, waggling his eyebrows at Jonghyun’s smug face. “I like other things up my ass, thank you very much.”

Jinki had the distinct pleasure of seeing Jonghyun choke on his beer, which more than made up for his own sudden embarrassment at saying such an inappropriate thing to someone he didn’t even know.

“Are you _flirting_ with me?” Jonghyun demanded, voice a bit raspy from the beer that had gone down the wrong way.

“Absolutely not,” Jinki said innocently. He could do innocent very well. “Why would you even think such a thing?”

Jonghyun coughed again and swiped a sleeve across his mouth. “Uh, because I’m irresistibly hot and you know it?”

Jinki couldn’t help snorting. Jonghyun coughed again and glared. It occurred to Jinki that antagonizing Taemin’s friend was probably not the best way to endear himself to the priest.

He occupied himself with pointlessly adjusting his cuffs again rather than risk another word. Jonghyun sucked at his beer and didn’t say anything either. The silence was not so much awkward as resentfully annoyed.

It was, fortunately, broken by Taemin’s arrival with the drinks only a few short minutes later.

“I got us both water and some local ale,” Taemin announced, setting several bottles down on the table with a clink. “Hi, Jonghyun!”

Jonghyun smiled up at Taemin. “Hey, babe. What’s up?”

“I found a pretty Navy captain,” Taemin said. He grinned at Jinki even as he prodded at one of Jonghyun’s shoulders with a finger to get him to scoot over a bit. “See?”

“Yeah, I see,” said Jonghyun, obediently moving over. Jinki tried not to frown when Taemin slid in next to Jonghyun and let the man drape a casual arm about his shoulders.

“So,” said Taemin, gazing happily at Jonghyun. “What have you been up to recently?”

~~~

Minho let Taemin lead Jinki off towards the dance floor. He himself went straight to the bar. He felt like he needed a drink or two in his system before he’d feel relaxed enough to start enjoying the night. Taemin had recommended several very good local drinks while on their walk here; one or two of them had sounded worth trying.

There was a _ridiculous_ amount of people in the club. Minho elbowed his way through the throngs of laughing dancers and groups of friends, grateful that his height allowed him to at least _kind of_ see where he was going. The music hummed in his bones, far too loud.

The crowd parted and shifted, allowing Minho to catch sight of the bar in between a crack in the wall of bodies. Someone’s wing caught him in the small of his back and knocked him forward. He stumbled past the edge of the crowd main and into full sight of the bar.

Then he froze because _oh fuck no_.

Key was sitting there.

At the bar.

 _Right in front of him_.

Key was wearing a dark blue and vivid red uniform, which contrasted drastically with the monochrome hues of the rest of the crowd. It was impossible not to stare at him. Key was so handsome, all darkly seductive eyes and eyebrows and fucking _cheekbones_ …

Minho sucked in a deep, shuddery breath, trying to remember how his lungs worked. It had been one thing to see just Key’s face on a flickering viewscreen. It was quite another to see him right here, in the flesh, and still so distractingly, stunningly beautiful.

Key looked up and their gazes locked. Minho swallowed hard. Key smirked, crooked a finger at him, and fluttered his eyelashes.

“You going to stand there all night, or come and join me?” Key called, raising his voice to yell over the din of the music.

Minho really, _really_ should refuse, or walk away, or arrest him, or find Jinki and alert him to the situation, or _something_. It was his duty and responsibility as a Navy sailor.

Instead, he found himself walking forward as if in a daze and settling himself on the bar stool next to Key.

Key grinned. A fluttery sensation flipped Minho’s stomach over at that grin. He frowned and looked away to conceal his reaction.

“Oh, come on, is that any way to greet me?” said Key. “We haven’t seen each other in _years_.”

“We saw each other two weeks ago,” Minho said. He still refused to look at Key, afraid that if he did so, he’d never be able to tear his gaze away again. “You tried to kill us.”

“Please,” Key scoffed. He leaned forward and casually curled his fingers over Minho’s wrist. “If I’d really wanted to kill you, I would have.”

His thumb began rubbing gentle circles onto Minho’s skin. Minho shivered and didn’t pull away.

“Then what _did_ you want?” he demanded.

“To play,” said Key, voice an insinuating purr.

Minho sucked in a sharp breath and involuntarily looked over at him. Key’s eyes were invitingly dark, the bow of his lips curved into a promising smile. Minho imagined what it would be like, if the two of them were to lean forward just a little, lips meeting in a kiss…

He shoved the thought away and forced himself to focus. It was difficult to remember what they’d just been speaking of, but he somehow managed nonetheless.

“ _Play_?”

“Mm-hmm.” Key’s low hum of agreement sent more shivers down Minho’s spine. “But enough of business. Want me to order you a drink?”

“No,” said Minho as stiffly as he could. The circles of Key’s thumb against his wrist were so fucking _distracting._ “I should arrest you.”

Key laughed. “I look forward to you trying. Do you really think I’d be here without back-up? Take a look around. You try anything on me, and my people will be on you faster than a blood-hungry space leech.”

With no small effort, Minho tore his gaze away from Key and glanced about the room. Several unsavory-looking people stared back, grinning with teeth bared. Minho felt certain that these were not the only members of his crew Key had stationed here, either.

Which also meant the bar was under Key’s pay- or bribe- and that there was zero chance of arresting any of the pirates without getting himself _and_ Jinki _and_ Taemin into serious trouble. Shit.

Minho should have known Key would be prepared for an eventuality like this. Key was _always_ prepared for everything. It was one of his scariest qualities.

It was also one of the things Minho liked best about him, but it was probably best not to dwell on that.

“So,” said Key, voice lingering meaningfully on each syllable. “About that drink…”

Minho made the mistake of looking at him once more. Key tilted his head enticingly to the side, the skull and crossbones on his cap gleaming in the flickering light. He was still tracing designs on Minho’s wrist with his thumb. It was difficult to concentrate past that teasing touch, difficult to focus on the fact that Key was his _enemy_. Minho should be coming up with ways to arrest him or track him or _something_.

Instead, his head was full of a dizzy desire to have Key touch him and kiss him in far more intimate places than just the inside of his wrist. He remembered all too well how it had felt to have Key’s hands stroke against his bare skin, and to taste the fierce sweetness of that pretty mouth…

“Sure,” he said hoarsely. “Um, drinks are good.”

Key’s smirk deepened. The curve of his hand on Minho’s wrist shifted, thumb brushing against the sensitive skin of Minho’s palm. The contact sent a shock low into Minho’s stomach, almost but not quite making him moan.

_Shit._

It took every ounce of willpower he possessed to snatch his hand away from Key’s touch and hold it tightly to his chest. Key’s expression flickered briefly, the change too quick to grasp. Then he gave a loose shrug and sat straight again, gesturing at the bartender to signal for her attention.

“You have a preference?” Key asked as the bartender headed over their way. “Or do you want me to order for you?”

Minho shrugged, tense and trying to not to miss the sensation of Key’s hand on his. “The Venusian Supernova sounded good.”

“Ah, good choice,” said Key approvingly. “That stuff has the _best_ zing to it. I think I’ll order a Punch Drunk Love…the bartender on right now is really good at mixing them...”

Minho opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by the arrival of the bartender and the flirtatious smile Key turned up at her.

“Hey, babe,” said Key, eyelashes fluttering again. He then launched into describing their drink orders as the bartender listened attentively.

Minho, meanwhile, clenched his teeth, unspeakably annoyed at how easy it apparently was for Key to switch the object of his seduction. Minho wanted to be the _only_ one Key looked at with that playful intensity. They _belonged_ to each other; it wasn’t fair that Key should smile so sweetly at someone else.

Except that was the problem, wasn’t it? They _didn’t_ belong to each other anymore. Key had left him _years_ ago. Minho should be over him by now. He should be thinking about how to find Jinki and start figuring out how to capture the pirates. He should be subtly interrogating Key about his motives and criminal schemes.

He should not be jealous of a _bartender_. He especially should not be half-hard from just _thinking_ about how much he wanted Key to pin him to the bar counter and kiss him fucking senseless.

The bartender finally left to go mix their drinks. Minho did his best to rearrange his face into an expression that did not reveal how turned on he was by Key’s general existence. It would be beyond embarrassing for Key to discover how much Minho still wanted him, and dangerous besides. Minho knew full well that the only reason Key had been flirting with him in the first place was to catch him off-guard and use him for his knowledge of the _SHINee_ in some horrible pirate-y scheme.

Key adjusted the jewel attached to the throat of his shirt collar and raised an expressive eyebrow.

“You know, you can stop glaring at me like I’m about to murder you,” he said mildly. “I promise I don’t want anything other than to talk. No corpses involved.”

“Oh, sure,” said Minho, trying for harsh sarcasm to conceal how he really felt. “Like I’m supposed to believe that. You’re a criminal and an asshole and you _left_ me.”

His voice cracked a little on these last three words. Minho scowled down at his knees. _Why_ had he said that? He didn’t need to give Key any emotional advantage over him.

Key was quiet for a moment. Then he said: “I never intended to abandon you forever, you know. I meant to contact you again after a few months had gone by, after I’d had time to get a head start on the people hunting me down for desertion. But then you went off on that deep-space mission and I couldn’t get ahold of you for _years_.”

That didn’t make Minho feel any better. “I spent _two months_ waiting for any sign of you and _nothing_ ,” he said. “Two months! I didn’t even know you were planning on leaving in the first place-”

“Of course you didn’t,” said Key impatiently. “ _Everyone_ knew we were together. The investigation into my desertion was bound to question you about where I was, and I knew that you’d tell them anything you knew. So I made sure you didn’t know anything.” He shrugged. “And after I left, any messages between us could have led them to me, so I waited on sending any until I was sure I was safe.”

These words stung. “What, you thought I’d just _hand over_ any communication between us to the investigation? I loved you! I’d have lied to protect you-”

“No, you wouldn’t have.” Key’s voice was unexpectedly gentle. “You were always such a good little soldier, so focused on honor and duty. You wouldn’t have come with me and you wouldn’t have protected me.”

Key was probably right about that. It still hurt to think that his then-boyfriend hadn’t trusted him even a _little_ with his plans.

“Whatever,” said Minho. He curled his hands into tight fists.

“I really did mean to contact you eventually,” Key said earnestly. “I swear. If you’d waited a few more months-”

The arrival of their drinks interrupted whatever else he was about to say. Minho thanked the bartender, lifted the glass to his mouth and took a careful sip. The alcohol burned its way down his throat, distracting him for a moment from the emotional confusion Key’s confessions had instilled in him.

If Key really _hadn’t_ meant to abandon him forever…but no, he couldn’t afford to think that way. Key was still a pirate and a wanted criminal. It was highly likely he was lying through his teeth just to play some sick little pirate game.

It was too dangerous to hope Key was telling the truth. Minho knew better by now than to place his faith and trust in Key, no matter how desperately he wanted to.

“Why did you leave, anyway?” he asked after taking another fortifying sip of his Supernova. “Decided looting innocent ships was a better way to get a pay raise than doing honest work?”

Key winced. No, that must have been a trick of the spinning light. Key was a shameless pirate and a terrible person. Minho was _not_ going to feel guilty about snapping at him.

He was _also_ not going to notice the suggestive way Key’s pink tongue licked at the salt crystals clinging to the rim of his drink.

“No,” Key answered. “I left because…do you remember how we used to spend shore leave in casinos?”

Minho nodded. Key had had an uncanny skill with winning games of supposed chance, which he’d always attributed to the same reasons he was such an adept star-fighting tactician- he enjoyed using his understanding of his opponents’ psychology against them. Minho had mostly just been in it to make sure the pissed-off losers didn’t jump Key in a back alley to get revenge for their massive losses.

That, and it had always been a pleasure to watch how ridiculously amazing Key was at being always five steps ahead of the game. This pleasure was intensified by the satisfaction of being able to cuddle Key closely afterwards, knowing that the heart of this perfect, clever person was _his_. Key might scheme and manipulate his way through life, but he’d always been honest and sweet with Minho.

Or so Minho had thought, before he’d left without a word to turn pirate.

“Well,” said Key finally, once it was clear Minho wasn’t going to respond to the question. “I met a guy while we were out and he took an interest in my ability to outthink people. He told me about how much more interesting life would be if I wasn’t stuck on a Navy starship, bound by rank and regulations and boring missions directing space traffic.” He toyed with his glass. “In the end, I was convinced, so I left.”

Minho stared at him. “That’s it? You were just… _bored_?”

Key rolled his eyes. “I wanted life to be fun, yeah. Being a sailor wasn’t fun at all. Now, I can pick and choose my targets and play with any ship I want. It’s awesome.”

“And by ‘play’, you mean destroy and rob-”

Key waved a hand airily about. “If that’s what you want to call it, sure.”

Minho pressed his lips together. The Key he’d known would never have been so flippant about inflicting wanton violence on civilians.

Key’s eyes softened. He reached forward and, very gently, brushed his fingers against Minho’s cheek. Minho very nearly dropped his drink, his grip on the glass going clumsy with nervous surprise.

“I’m sorry,” Key said, fingertips lingering on Minho’s jawline. “Pirate humor probably doesn’t appeal to you very much, does it?”

Minho’s jaw locked tight; he knew he should lean away from Key’s touch _right now_. But all his muscles seemed to have turned to jelly, a jelly that wanted nothing more than to lean _into_ Key’s hand, ask the pirate to stroke his cheek again…

“No,” said Minho, voice emerging rather strangled from his internal conflict. “I don’t like marauding criminals or their humor.”

Key drew his hand back and sighed. “Yes, I know.”

There was a sudden silence between the two of them. Minho watched Key sip at his drink, Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed the alcohol down. Minho clutched the hem of his shirt tightly, resisting the sudden urge to reach out and touch the arch of Key’s throat.

Then Key set his drink down, cocked his head, and grinned.

“My life hasn’t all been about ambushing ships, though. Want me to tell you the story about how I once had to fight my way through a flock of giant mutated space leeches?”

Minho choked, taken aback by the sudden shift in mood. Key grinned wider, eyes sparkling with infectious charm.

“Come on, I know you’re curious,” he said. “We wound up beating the shit out of them with a collection of stolen vacuum cleaners- oops,” and here he bit his lip, guiltily. “Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that they were stolen-”

Minho, despite himself, laughed. The idea of Key’s crew of bloodthirsty pirates wielding vacuum cleaners against giant space leeches was too amusing _not_ to laugh at.

Key smiled happily at the laugh, cheeks dimpling. The handsome lines of his face were set in an expression of deeply pleased affection, like Minho’s laughter was the best thing in the world. Minho remembered with a pang how familiar that smile had used to be.

He took an unnecessarily violent sip of his drink to conceal the sudden weakness in his knees.

“Go on,” he said, as neutrally as he could. “How the hell did you manage to use _vacuum cleaners_ against a space leech?”

Key laughed, and launched into the tale. Minho sat quietly, and listened, and lost the battle not to occasionally smile.

~~~

Taemin was such a little _fool_.

Jonghyun’s every nerve was on edge as he deftly fielded the flow of conversation between himself, Taemin and the Navy captain. Didn’t Taemin realize how dangerous it was for Jinki to know that Taemin was well-acquainted with a pirate? True, Taemin hadn’t yet let on that he _knew_ Jonghyun was a pirate, but still. Taemin was not usually very good at keeping secrets, and Jinki was unfortunately intelligent. It was only a matter of time before the captain figured it out.

The last thing he needed was for Jinki to get suspicious of poor Taemin, just because his hitchhiking guest knew people on the wrong side of the law. Taemin should have known better than to bring the captain into this.

Then again, Taemin had never had any sense in these matters, so Jonghyun supposed he wasn’t entirely surprised. And the captain _was_ admittedly very attractive, if kind of irritatingly formal in the way most Navy officers often were.

As long as he remained careful, the night still might go as planned…


	3. Chapter 3

~~~

Jinki was bored out of his mind.

Taemin and Jonghyun had clearly known each other for some time; they’d spent the past hour chatting with Taemin comfortably tucked under Jonghyun’s arm. It annoyed Jinki considerably, particularly since he _knew_ it was irrational to be annoyed. He’d met Taemin what, all of three weeks ago? He shouldn’t be jealous of Taemin cuddling up to an old friend.

Except that he’d had high hopes that this night would end with him and the pretty priest fucking happily in one of the back rooms. He had _not_ wanted to sit here for hours listening to Taemin and Jonghyun jabber on and on about useless things he didn’t care about.

Useless, inconsequential things. It hadn’t escaped Jinki’s notice that Jonghyun had not mentioned exactly what he did for a living, other than it involved living on a starship. He was probably therefore into something deeply unsavory that he didn’t want a Navy captain knowing about.

At the moment, Jonghyun could have been one of Key’s bloody crew for all that Jinki cared. He just wanted the irritating man, undeniably handsome as he was, gone.

He sighed and slowly lapped at the drink he’d been nursing all night. Maybe it was time to chug the stuff down and get smashed. This tedium might be more bearable if he were drunk.

~~~

Key was surprised at how _well_ this night was going.

He’d half-expected Minho to give him the silent treatment all night. But after something of a rough start to their conversation, things had slowly gotten better. Minho had even smiled once or twice. It was probably pretty pathetic to be so satisfied with the smallest scraps of Minho’s tolerance, but, well, fuck that. Even pirate captains were allowed to be pathetic every once and a while.

The bar had gotten louder and louder as the night wore on and more and more people came out to party. Key eventually tired of all but yelling so Minho could hear him.

“Follow me,” he shouted and slid off the bar stool.

Minho glanced about- probably checking to see if Key’s people were still lurking around, which they were- then sighed and trailed after him. Key reached back and gripped Minho’s wrist so they wouldn’t lose each other in the hordes of people. He ignored Minho’s flinch; the guy could deal with a few minutes of skin contact. It wouldn’t kill him.

Key had reserved the best room in-house beforehand out of the same faint hope that had led him to bring the condom and lube with him. He had no intentions of doing anything sexual with Minho now, of course. Minho’s body language had made it very clear that although he was possibly still attracted to Key, he very much did not want to follow through on that attraction.

The back room was bound to be much quieter than the chaos of the bar, however, and therefore much more suitable to continue their conversation, even if that conversation remained only conversation.

Key _did_ fully intend on making Minho smile at least once more tonight, after all. Maybe he should try some of Jonghyun’s racier jokes. That might do the trick.

Once they’d entered the room, Key locked the door while Minho went and sat down on the bed.

“Are you kidnapping me or something?” Minho asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “You should know the Navy doesn’t negotiate with pirates.”

Key rolled his eyes and bent down to start undoing his boots. He planned on keeping Minho here a while; he may as well get comfortable.

“I’d like to stop shrieking at full volume in order to talk to you,” he said dryly. He stepped out of his left boot and started on his right. “Is that too much to ask?”

Minho sighed. “I don’t know why you’re so intent on talking to me anyway. Neither of us has said anything interesting for the past half-hour.”

“What, you didn’t like my story about the communications officer and the gravity-defying space tomato?” Key kicked off his second boot. “And here I thought I saw you grinning at the punch line.”

Minho immediately went stone-faced and looked away. Key silently cursed himself. He should have known better.

“How long are we going to be here?”

“All night,” Key said promptly. He dug his socked toes into the carpet, took a breath and started walking over. “I haven’t seen you in years, and I’ll probably never see you again after tonight. Forgive me if I’d like you to hang around a bit longer.”

Minho frowned at him. “I’m serious. I’m not great at making small-talk with pirates-”

“Oh hush, you’ve been doing fine thus far.” Key came to a halt just in front of Minho. “Besides, you can just let me do all the talking.”

Minho sighed and bent over, fingers tugging at the numerous buckles on his boots. Key watched silently as he struggled with the leather and metal. A strangely intense longing rose within him, a wistful desire for something not quite lost.

He knelt swiftly down on the carpet and touched Minho’s ankle.

“Here, let me.”

The lines of Minho’s face deepened in a displeased fashion, but he leaned back on his hands and let Key deal with the boots anyway. Key tuned out the disheartening cast of Minho’s expression and focused on undoing the buckles. His fingers pulled gently at the metal, tugging the latches open and sliding the straps free.

He worked his way down the side of the first boot, then carefully drew down the zipper behind the buckles. He placed one hand over the ankle of the boot, the other higher up around Minho’s calf, and began sliding the boot off the rest of the way.

It was oddly calming. If Key just focused on what he was doing and not on the actual context of the situation, he could pretend that nothing between them had changed. He was just helping his boyfriend out of his boots after a long day. Afterwards, he would rub Minho’s feet between his hands. Then Minho would draw him up and kiss him. Key would put his arms around the man he loved and everything would be all right.

It was a sweetly domestic fantasy, and Key let himself give into it. Temporarily, of course.

He set Minho’s right boot aside and began on his left. He didn’t let himself look up at Minho. He didn’t want to see the distaste surely crossing Minho’s face and let it ruin this imagined moment.

Key undid each buckle on the right boot with a gentle care, as if he were handling something both precious and fragile. He let his fingertips brush lightly against each inch of skin and sock revealed as he unzipped the side of the leather boot. He sighed softly when he slid the boot off the rest of the way, knowing that in only seconds he would never be permitted to touch Minho this way again.

He set the second boot aside but couldn’t quite bring himself to let go. He reached out, fingers lingering tenderly on the knob of Minho’s anklebone, peeping out above one thick green sock. Key wondered wildly, ridiculously, if Minho would consent to a foot massage.

“Are you done yet?”

Key suppressed a flinch. He slowly let his hand drop back and took a deep, steadying breath. He then looked up at Minho from where he was still kneeling between his spread legs.

Minho frowned down at him, brows furrowed. Key resisted with some difficulty the urge to place a comforting hand on Minho’s knee. He tried to paste a reassuring expression onto his face instead, and wasn’t sure he’d succeeded.

“Hey, don’t worry,” he said. “I’m not about to molest you or anything.”

Minho winced. “I wasn’t-”

“You were.” Key tried to smile; it didn’t come off very well. “Chill, Commander. I know you don’t want anything to do with me, much less anything sexual.”

“You think I don’t…” Minho’s voice trailed off. His eyes were suddenly very dark. “Are you serious?”

“Uh, yeah?” Key frowned. That expression was easier. “You’ve made it very clear that you don’t even like me flirting with you. Like, sure, I can tell you still think I’m hot, but there’s a difference between just that and _wanting_ me, y’know? And you don’t. Want me, I mean.”

“Fuck, Key, of course I want you!”

Key stared at him with open astonishment, unable to process these baffling words. Had Minho misunderstood what he’d meant?

“What? No, you don’t. You don’t even _like_ me-”

Minho fisted his hands in Key’s hair and dragged him up. The thought to resist never crossed Key’s mind. He let Minho tug him up and forward onto his lap, automatically reaching out to use Minho’s knees as leverage until he was straddling Minho’s thighs. The next moment, Minho’s arms were around him, Minho’s mouth hot and fierce on his.

Never mind that this was completely and utterly unexpected; it was fucking _heaven_.

“How are you so fucking _clueless?_ ” demanded Minho in a breathless moment between kisses. “You can outwit half the Fleet in a spacefight but you can’t even tell that of course I still want you; I’ve always fucking wanted you, you drive me fucking _crazy_ -”

Their mouths crushed together in another roughly possessive kiss. Key moaned and melted into the heat of Minho’s mouth, clinging tightly to Minho’s shoulders for balance.

“I didn’t know,” he somehow managed to say, though it felt like his brain was short-circuiting from the intensity of Minho’s lips on his. “I thought you’d hate me by now.”

“I probably should,” said Minho. He nuzzled his nose against Key’s cheekbone, breathing hard. “But I’ve never had any common sense where you’re concerned. _Gods_ only know why I’m still in love with you-”

This declaration was too much. Key tangled the fingers of one hand in Minho’s hair and kissed him again, hot and fierce and desperate. The kiss was open-mouthed and sloppy, tongues grazing against teeth as they held tight to each other, hard enough to bruise.

Minho moaned low in his throat. “ _Kibum_ …”

The sound of his old name, the one almost no one now called him, sparked something in Key, some deep need he couldn’t quite name. He bit down on Minho’s lip, teasing at the flash of pain with a skilled tongue. Then he lifted his head up slowly as he licked at Minho’s mouth, forcing Minho to arch forward, eagerly following the sweetly alcoholic taste of Key’s mouth.

“Say it again,” Key breathed, carding his fingers through Minho’s soft locks, knocking that awful hat off in the process. “Say it.”

“Say…?” said Minho, voice deep with desire, eyes dark and glazed. He sucked at Key’s lip, eliciting a tiny mewl of need from him before Key managed to refocus.

“My name,” said Key. He kissed Minho harder, hands sliding forward to cup Minho’s face in his palms. “That name. Say my _name_.”

“Kibum,” Minho said hoarsely. “Kibum, Kibum, _Kibum, please…_ ”

“Yes,” said Key. He rolled his hips forward, pressing his hardening cock against Minho’s stomach. Minho gasped and shuddered against him. “Yes, fuck, _yes_ -”

Minho silenced him with another kiss. Key moaned when Minho’s large hands slid down over his hips to grip the back of his thighs, then came back up again to squeeze the curve of his ass. Key arched his back to press himself more into Minho’s hands, unable to tear himself away from the kiss but needing Minho to fucking squeeze _harder_.

Their mouths slipped briefly apart anyway. Key panted for breath, clinging to Minho’s suspenders for support. Minho nipped at his earlobe and he whimpered a little, fingers curling tighter around the suspenders.

“I told you I want you,” Minho whispered, breath hot against said ear. Key shuddered and squeezed his thighs harder together around Minho’s waist. “I want you _so_ fucking badly. I dream, sometimes, about how we used to fuck…”

Key grabbed one of Minho’s wrists and guided it to the bulge straining at the crotch of his dark blue uniform trousers.

“Same,” he said, then flung his head back and _moaned_ when Minho began stroking at the bulge with clever fingers. “Fuck, these clothes need to come off _now_.”

“I dunno,” Minho murmured, kneading playfully at the tight heat of where Key’s cock was pressing against the fabric. “That uniform looks really hot on you. Do you know how much self-control it took for me not to jump you the instant I saw you?”

Key tried to say something sharp in reply, something about how given the intensity of Minho’s stone-faced glaring, he really _hadn’t_ known. Instead, he gave an incoherent groan, hips jerking against the friction of Minho’s fingers rubbing _almost_ against his cock.

“It took a fucking lot,” Minho whispered. His other hand was splayed at the small of Key’s back, thumb tracing circles there. “I sat there trying to pay attention to your ridiculous stories about space leeches and all I could think about was how hot you are.”

Key shivered, kissed Minho’s forehead. “Are you serious?”

“Hell, yeah. I kept wishing you’d shut up about the goddamn leeches and fuck me into the counter instead. I wanted your cock in me _so badly_ …”

It was too fucking much. Key let go of one of Minho’s shoulders and started fumbling at the fly of his uniform.

“Clothes off _now_ ,” he demanded, batting Minho’s hand away from his crotch. “I need you to touch me.”

Minho chuckled and nibbled playfully at his jawline. “Oh, I’ll _touch_ you, baby…”

Key kissed him hard to shut him up, tongue raking possessively through the heat of Minho’s mouth. It was Minho’s turn to moan, drawn-out and wanton, as he yielded to Key’s kiss.

The act of stripping off their clothing took much longer than it should have, given that neither of them could focus on zippers and buttons and buckles, instead far too occupied with exploring each inch of newly revealed skin. Key felt like he was addicted to Minho’s mouth, needing to return to kissing him every time he remembered how much he’d missed how Minho kissed, all open-mouthed intensity and possessive desire.

When finally they’d managed to shrug off the last of what they’d been wearing- Minho with a reluctant caress of fingertips against Key’s uniform shirt- they tumbled together onto the bed. Minho wound up on top of Key, tongue and teeth teasing at sensitive stiffened nipples. Key moaned and writhed on the bed, fingers fisted tight in Minho’s hair.

“Ugh, yes, _Minho_ , oh, that feels so good, do it again…”

Minho splayed a hand on the taut plane of Key’s belly and lifted his head a little to grin up at him.

“I’d forgotten how much you used to talk when we fucked.”

Key flushed and shoved gently at Minho’s head.

“I’d talk less if you put your mouth to better use than my fucking _nipples_ ,” he growled.

“I like your nipples, though.” Minho sucked one into his mouth, lapping at the nub with his tongue, then let it go with a wet pop. Key whimpered, hips jerking helplessly at the sensation. “They’re so cute.”

“My cock’s cute, too,” said Key, somehow managing to get the words out despite the throaty moan that was threatening to consume him. “Suck on that.”

Minho snorted, but shifted down the bed to do as ordered. Then Key was lost in a dizzying haze of sensation as Minho’s mouth slicked around his cock, all tight, wet heat. Key cursed loudly and fisted his hands into the sheets as Minho’s tongue curled obscenely around his shaft, licking it from the base straight up to the slit. Minho took him in deeper and deeper, until the bucking of Key’s hips made the tip of his cock hit the back of Minho’s throat, over and over again.

And still Minho continued to suck him off, cheeks hollowed, eyes darkly intent from behind half-lowered lashes. Key could barely focus enough to appreciate the sight, so utterly lost was he in the heat of Minho’s mouth. Thinking became impossible, helpless reaction the only thing he was capable of.

Actually, no, that was a lie. There was one thought that kept circling into his head, and that was that Minho had gotten significantly better at blow-jobs since the last time he’d given Key one. Which meant that he’d had practice.

With someone else.

The jealousy broke through the intense pleasure at the feeling of Minho’s tongue tracing the veins of his cock. It rose to flame viciously hot and possessive in Key’s chest. How dare anyone else enjoy Minho’s glorious mouth like this? Minho was fucking _his_.

“Up, off, off,” he gasped, tugging at a soft handful of Minho’s hair. “C’mere.”

Minho obediently let Key’s hard cock slip from his mouth with another wetly obscene sound. He crawled up the bed at Key’s insistence. Key dragged him down into a demanding kiss.

“You’re _mine_ ,” Key growled. He pulled Minho to him again, tasting alcohol and fruit juice and Key’s own particular musk. “Mine, all mine.”

“Yours,” Minho agreed, flushed and panting. He kissed Key back, their mouths pressing together with an unrelenting heat. “Only yours.”

“Yes,” said Key, fingernails raking scratches down Minho’s back. His thighs trembled with need when Minho moaned at the sensation, eyes fluttering closed. “ _Yes._ You’re so fucking gorgeous.”

“You’re beautiful.” Minho kissed his cheekbones, his eyelids, the bridge of his nose. “So pretty, and all for me.” He trailed a hand down Key’s bare side.

“Mmm,” Key purred, arching responsively into the touch. “I want to fuck you.”

Minho moaned again at these words, burying his head in the crook of Key’s shoulder. Key splayed his hands over Minho’s muscled back, feeling the sharp angles of shoulder-blades against his palms.

“Please,” Key whispered, nuzzling at Minho’s ear. “I want to be inside you. Wouldn’t you like that? I’d fuck you nice and hard, lover. I’d make you beg for me, make you fucking _scream._ ”

Minho trembled against him, cock pressed hard and swollen against Key’s side. Key sucked the ear into his mouth, drawing lazy patterns against the skin with his tongue. His hands skimmed down Minho’s body to rub promising caresses onto Minho’s ass.

Minho drew in a shuddery breath. When he spoke, his voice sounded wrecked.

“Lube-”

“In my jacket pocket, the front right one,” Key said. He licked at the shell of Minho’s ear. “Gonna spread you open for me, baby. Gonna wreck that pretty ass of yours ‘til you can’t even _think_.”

Minho groaned, deep and resonant, eyes fluttering shut. Key shivered at the sound and prodded impatiently at Minho’s hip with a knee. Minho huffed and kissed him on the lips. Key had no objections to being so thoroughly kissed. He wrapped his arms tightly around Minho and arched his back, pressing them close together, needing every last square inch of skin contact between them.

It wasn’t enough. Key wanted _more_. He thought about what _more_ might entail, thought about sinking deep into the tight heat of Minho’s ass, claiming what was his, and finally broke the kiss.

“The _lube_ ,” he panted, shoving Minho off him. “You fucking distracting bastard-”

Minho chuckled and crawled off of him. He swung his legs off the bed and bent briefly down to pick Key’s uniform jacket up and fish through the pockets.

Key himself sat up and admired the sweaty musculature of Minho’s back. He shifted forward so he was kneeling just behind Minho and placed his hands flat against Minho’s hips, then slowly slid them up his back. Minho nearly lost his hold on the lube and moaned, arching delightedly into the touch.

It was Key’s turn to chuckle. He slid his hands over Minho’s shoulders and down his chest. Then he back-hugged him tightly, nuzzling their cheeks together.

“I brought your favorite flavor,” Key whispered softly, thumbs brushing over the nubs of Minho’s nipples.

Minho’s breath hitched at the sensation. Then he popped open the tube of lube, relaxing into Key’s arms with a shuddery little sigh.

“I noticed. Did you want me to rim you first or something?”

“No time for that,” said Key. He kissed Minho’s cheek, awkwardly due to the angle. “I want to fuck you _now_.”

Minho shivered, a low groan slipping from his lips. They tumbled back onto the bed, Key slicking his fingers with the lube even as Minho rolled the condom onto the hard length of Key’s cock, bobbing eagerly about.

“How do you want me?” Minho asked, settling his hands on Key’s hips. His eyes were fixed on Key’s cock, bright with longing.

“On your back,” said Key. He gently pushed Minho down into the sheets. “I want to look at you.”

Minho smiled up at him, unexpectedly sweet. Key smiled back, because he’d _missed_ that smile.

He placed his hands on Minho’s inner thighs and spread them apart, sliding one palm up the back of Minho’s long legs to hook said leg over his shoulder. He circled a fingertip lightly against Minho’s pretty, glistening hole, smile widening, before he slid the lube-slick finger in.

Time had not erased his memory of how Minho liked to be fingered. Key soon had him wordless and breathless and panting, back bowed up off the bed in attempt to take Key’s fingers in as deep as they would go.

“Kibum,” he whimpered, all traces of his former self-control gone. “Kibum, fuck, _please_ -”

Key curled his fingers against the sweet spot that he knew led to Minho’s prostate, cock hardening at the sight of Minho crying out, needy and desperate and writhing against the sheets.

“Shit, please, _Kibum_ , I need your _cock_ in me, I need it _now_ -”

“In a moment,” Key said, working a fourth finger into Minho’s hole. “You’re so fucking _tight_ for me.”

“For you,” agreed Minho, eyes rolling up a little when Key scissored his fingers at _just_ the right place. “Holy- Kibum, I need you to _fuck_ me-”

Key turned his head and pressed a kiss to Minho’s knee. “Mmm,” he said, thrusting all four fingers into Minho’s tight heat again. “I suppose I could…”

“If you don’t fucking take me _right fucking now_ -”

Key laughed and thrust his fingers in one last time. Minho all but keened with need, arm muscles bulging as he gripped the sheets, cock leaking onto his hardened abs.

Key slipped his hand out and reached down to run his other hand over the length of his own stiff cock. His thighs quivered with anticipation.

“So impatient,” he said teasingly, guiding his cock to brush against Minho’s balls.

Minho’s eyelashes fluttered as the tip of Key’s cock pressed against his eagerly clenching hole. “ _Kibum_ -”

Then Key was sinking into him, groaning blissfully at how tight and hot and _perfect_ Minho felt, squeezing around his cock. Minho cried out, babbling an incoherent stream of nonsense as Key sank in deeper and deeper, filling him up.

“That’s it,” Key breathed, moaning when Minho canted his hips a little, the tiny spark of friction sending a jolt of pure _want_ straight through him.

He rocked his own hips back and forth, not thrusting just yet, but teasing Minho with what was to come. Minho made a high-pitched little noise at the back of his throat and clawed at the sheets.

“Kibum, fuck you, _harder,_ ugh-” He bit off his words with a strangled sound when Key rolled his hips in a smooth motion, drawing his cock slowly back, then thrusting in hard, making the headboard of the bed bang against the wall.

“You like that, baby?” Key purred, and did it again. Minho arched his back harder, yelling nonsense as Key rolled his hips for a third time, then a fourth and a fifth and a sixth, fucking his way harder and deeper into Minho each time.

“ _Mmm, Kibum…_ ” Minho moaned, voice low and hoarse, almost unrecognizable.

The sound of _that name_ proved too much for Key. He growled and dipped his head down to briefly bite at Minho’s collarbones. Then he began to fuck him in earnest, hard and fast and rough. Minho’s fingers scrabbled at his slim shoulders, even as the bed rocked hard against the wall.

As fantastic as the tight, squeezing friction around his cock felt, Key felt equally turned on by the sight of Minho beneath him, spread out and gorgeous and utterly _his_. Key fucked him like they used to fuck, nipping at all the sensitive places along Minho’s throat even as he angled his thrusts to stroke against Minho’s prostate each time, rendering Minho an incoherent, panting mess on the sheets beneath him.

“ _Mine_ ,” snarled Key, catching Minho’s swollen lips in a fierce and biting series of kisses. Minho kissed back, helpless with desire. “Say my name again- _say it_ -”

Minho said it, but it was more of a cry, almost a scream, as he wrapped long legs around Key’s waist, back arching harder. His mouth fastened onto Key’s shoulder and he bit down without mercy, making Key cry out in turn, the pain turning immediately to a hot, sharp, far too intense pleasure. His hips lost their careful rhythm and he pounded fast and hard into Minho’s body, lost in a haze of lust too strong to control.

Minho gasped and whimpered beneath him, begging for more. Their mouths crushed together in a brief, sloppy kiss, Minho’s mouth opening eagerly for Key’s tongue, just as his body had opened for the hardness of Key’s cock.

And then Key was coming with a loud cry, body wrung sharp and electric and shivery with his climax. His vision whitened for a moment; then he was panting hard into the crook of Minho’s shoulder while his cock pulsed inside of Minho’s body.

He sucked in a harsh breath when Minho tried fruitlessly to rock his hips up and fuck himself onto the softening cock still inside him, the friction adding to the shudder of the aftershocks jolting through every fiber of Key’s muscles still.

When Key managed to regain some ability to do more than lay on top of Minho and shake with pleasure, he slid out of Minho’s body and pulled the condom off, tossing it in the direction of the wastebasket. Then he wrapped his hand around the hard length of Minho’s stiff cock and slid his palm up the shaft, twisting his wrist as he reached the head.

Minho mewled loudly, eyes dark and glazed and just this side of touched-out. Key rubbed the pad of his thumb against Minho’s slit, and then Minho was coming too, hot jets of come spurting onto Key’s hand and wrist and fingers. Key lifted his hand to his mouth and licked the stuff off, gazing wickedly down at Minho as he did so.

“Kibum, you beautiful asshole,” groaned Minho. The words were hoarse, unsteady, as if Minho was having trouble remembering quite how his voice worked. “Come here.”

Key licked another stripe of come off his fingers. Then he crawled forward and let Minho draw him into a tender, exhausted kiss, all the energy of lust gone and replaced by something much deeper and sweeter. Minho stroked Key’s cheek gently as they lingered against each other’s lips, just like he’d always done after they’d made love.

Key, still sprawled on top of Minho, carded his fingers through Minho’s sweat-drenched locks of hair. He broke from the kiss and sighed when Minho leaned his head contentedly into the touch.

“I’ve missed you,” Key whispered, swallowing. “I’ve missed you so much.”

Minho kissed the corner of his mouth. “I’ve missed you, too.” He framed Key’s face with his hands, gazing up at him with the soft, tender expression he’d only ever had for Key. “I love you.”

Key did not miss the way Minho’s breath hitched at these words, like he wasn’t quite sure of the response. Silly bastard. Key lifted a hand and curled it around Minho’s wrist, pressing Minho’s hand closer against his cheek.

“I love you too,” he said, and held nothing back in his expression when he gazed back down at Minho, _willing_ him to believe that this was the absolute truth.

Minho’s breath hitched again, but in a different way, a _better_ way. Then they were kissing again, and smiling with unabashed delight through the kiss, which made said kissing difficult, but _better_.

Some minutes later, Minho wrapped his arms around Key and pulled him down to spoon in a tight embrace. Key melted into the touch like he’d never wanted anything else. He snuggled close to Minho, tucking his head underneath his lover’s chin.

Minho was asleep in moments. Key smiled and gently stroked the fine hair on the back of Minho’s hands.

“You’re such a sweetheart,” he whispered softly. “I’ve missed you.” He breathed carefully in and out, and waited.

~~~

It was extraordinarily loud in the club. It ought to have been annoying, perhaps even painful. It wasn’t. It was melty instead. Jonghyun was aware that _melty_ wasn’t a word people usually used to describe sound. To be completely honest, he wasn’t even sure it _was_ a word. But as his beautiful mother used to say: _if the boot fits, lick it._

Actually, come to think of it, that probably wasn’t what she had said. Who licked boots, anyway? Strange people. Boot-lickers. Jonghyun was thinking of becoming a boot licker. The Navy captain had gotten up to find the club restroom half an hour ago and he’d had on great boots. Knee-high, lace-up, black. Kick you in the face boots. Jonghyun wouldn’t mind that, not if he got to lick them. And other things. Like Jinki’s face. He’d like to lick Jinki’s face.

In addition to being aware that _melty_ wasn’t the best word to describe sound, Jonghyun was also aware that he was quite possibly drunk. Not _extremely_ drunk. The world wasn’t spinning about off-balance. But he felt melty. Just like the music. Boneless and warm and distracted by the softness of Taemin’s hair wound around his fingers and the handsome lines of Jinki’s face.

He’d been worried about something earlier, but he wasn’t now. Melty people didn’t worry. That was for losers. Losers who weren’t drunk.

Jinki was smiling at Taemin. That was annoying. Jonghyun didn’t know if it was annoying because Jinki was smiling at Taemin, or because Taemin was smiling at Jinki, or because Jonghyun’s cock had taken a surprising amount of interest in Jinki’s smile. The man had a fantastic face, damn him. It wasn’t fair. Navy officers were supposed to be pompous, ugly assholes. Jinki was Choice D. None of the above.

There was a hand on his arm. Jonghyun blinked at it, then blinked at the person it was attached to.

“C’mon,” said Taemin, tugging at his elbow. “Let’s go somewhere quieter. This song is giving me a headache.”

 _Melty_ , thought Jonghyun, and repressed the embarrassing urge to giggle. No self-respecting pirate would ever _giggle_. Well, Taemin did, but that was different. Taemin was weird. And a priest, Jonghyun reminded himself. That was what he’d been worrying about before. Taemin was a priest. Did priests giggle? Taemin did, but that didn’t mean anything. Taemin was weird.

“Circles,” said Jonghyun, following Taemin out of the booth. No one heard him. The music was too loud.

They pressed their way through the crowd. Jonghyun stumbled once or twice when someone knocked into him. Each time, Jinki put a hand on the small of his back to steady him. How fucking annoying. Jonghyun wasn’t some fragile little thing who needed to be _guided_. But he didn’t object. He liked Jinki touching him, even if his turtleneck was in the way of skin meeting skin.

The trip up the stairs to a back room passed by in a haze. Jonghyun spent it mostly staring at Jinki’s thighs as they went up a staircase or two. This club was so fucking low-tech. No elevators, seriously? And the electronic key-cards looked very sketchy as well. That was fine. Maybe the club could use Key’s bribe to upgrade a little. Also, the alcohol was fantastic.

“In, in, in,” said Taemin, and shoved Jonghyun through the door.

The three of them shucked their boots off. Jonghyun took off his hat and turtleneck as well. It was too fucking hot. He stretched, muscles flexing.

Jinki was staring at him. No, Jinki was staring at his toned six-pack of abs. Jonghyun grinned, smug.

“Like what you see?”

Jinki flushed a little. “You’re very attractive, yes.” His gaze flicked up, held Jonghyun’s own in a challenging stare. “Are you flirting with me?”

 _No, of course not, you pompous Navy prick_ , said Jonghyun’s pride and dignity.

“Yeah, obviously,” said his treacherous, cock-hungry mouth.

Taemin snorted. Jonghyun glared. Jinki smirked. Jonghyun hadn’t thought it possible for him to smirk, given that he’d been so infuriatingly polite up until now. It wasn’t fair that he looked as good smirking as he did smiling sweetly.

“I thought I caught you staring at me earlier,” said Jinki thoughtfully. “I wasn’t sure, because I mean, clearly you don’t like me…”

“Of course I don’t like you,” said Jonghyun. He crossed his arms over his bare chest. “You’re military. Bunch of jerks. Your only saving grace is that you’re really fucking hot-”

He stopped talking because Jinki was kissing him. Jonghyun kissed him back and clung to him because his insides had gone all melty again. He moaned. Everything tasted like alcohol. There was a tongue in his mouth and it was _excellent_.

Jinki pulled back. He looked smug. Jonghyun blinked to clear the haze from his head and stepped hard on Jinki’s foot.

“Ow! Fuck, what was that for?!”

It was Jonghyun’s turn to smirk as he went over to the bed. Taemin had gotten there before him and was lying sprawled at the foot of the bed, hand pressed shamelessly over his crotch.

Jonghyun sat down near the pillows. He grinned.

“I felt like it.”

Jinki glared at him. “You asshole.”

Jonghyun grinned wider. There was no way in hell he was ever admitting that he’d done it because Jinki had made him moan like a horny teenager with nothing more than a _kiss_. That was fucking embarrassing. It wasn’t going to happen again.

Jinki came over and sat in the middle of the bed, slightly nearer Jonghyun than strictly necessary. It was distracting. _He_ was distracting. Jonghyun eyed the slight bulge in the crotch of his uniform pants. There was an anchor embroidered there. Jonghyun wanted to lick it. What was that called? Ah yes, an oral fixation.

“So,” said Taemin, rolling over onto his stomach with boneless grace. “Can we fuck? The three of us, I mean.”

Jinki choked. Jonghyun snickered, appreciating Taemin’s directness.

“Sure,” he said, immediately forgetting all about his previous impulse to swear off kissing Jinki ever again. “You can fuck me and I’ll fuck the captain here.”

Jinki put a hand on Jonghyun’s thigh. Jonghyun’s cock twitched hopefully.

“What makes you think I’d let you top?” said Jinki.

He stroked the thigh. Jonghyun’s cock twitched harder. He swallowed.

“Yeah, I agree,” Taemin said from the other end of the bed. He leered at the other two with a very weird expression. “I think it’d be hot to watch the captain fuck you. I think you’d like it, too.”

Jonghyun made the mistake of looking Jinki in the eyes. The melty feeling got worse. He hated it when Taemin was right about things. He leaned back on his hands and attempted condescending scorn.

“Oh, please, like I’d let some pretty-boy Navy bastard have at my ass,” he scoffed. “Really, Taemin? Next you’ll be suggesting I roll over and call him _sir_.”

Jinki’s eyes darkened, smile turning wicked, teasing, playful. “Why don’t you? That could be hot.”

The meltiness in Jonghyun’s stomach got meltier. His cock, on the other hand, was rapidly becoming the opposite of melty at this suggestion.

“He outranks you, too,” added Taemin. “I mean, he _is_ a captain, and you’re just a commander. Well, kind of, I know pirates don’t really have ranks-”

“Pirates?” said Jinki, confused.

“Taemin!” snarled Jonghyun, sitting up straight, meltiness gone in a shock of adrenaline.

“…oops?” said Taemin, smiling guiltily.

~~~

It took several seconds longer than it probably should have for Jinki’s alcohol-intoxicated brain to make the connection. Pirates. Not having to pay for the back room (a previous bribe?). Jonghyun. Pirates. The data he’d been assembling on Key’s crew. Pirates.

“Fucking hell,” he said. “You’re _Kim Jonghyun_. The Almighty Key’s fucking right hand man.”

Jonghyun was glaring at a sheepish Taemin. Jinki really wished he’d put a shirt on. It would be easier to focus if he didn’t have to look at those glistening, sweaty abs.

“Sorry!” said Taemin to Jonghyun. “It just slipped out!”

Jinki fixed the priest with a second severely disappointed glower.

“You _know_ him,” he accused. “I’ve been harboring you on my ship and here you’ve been consorting with the very pirates that have been trying to _kill us all_ -”

“Only kind of!” Taemin protested. “I’m a priest, remember? When the _Garçons_ crew stops by here some of them come and see me for religious purposes. Besides, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like they tell me anything important about fighting or business or anything.”

This was probably true. That didn’t make it any less upsetting. Jinki wasn’t sober enough to deal with the implications of this, however. He swiveled around to glare tipsily at Jonghyun

“You,” he said. “You’re under arrest for piracy and- and other things.”

Jonghyun’s lip curled. “Give me a break. How the fuck are you going to arrest me? You’re too drunk to take me on one on one, and half the _Garçons_ ’ crew is partying it up downstairs. There’s no way in hell you’re dragging me out of here in cuffs.” His eyes glittered, taunting. “If you _brought_ cuffs, that is, which I doubt you did, since you weren’t expecting to find me here.”

Cocky bastard. He hadn’t been so full of himself when Jinki had kissed him earlier. Maybe Jinki should do that again. Kiss that infuriating mouth quiet, pin the tempting man to the bed and touch him everywhere, make him moan once more…and it would be all the more delicious knowing that it wasn’t just Taemin’s asshole friend begging for Jinki’s cock, but _Kim Jonghyun_ himself, the second-most dangerous pirate in the galaxy.

Jonghyun had noticed the darkening of Jinki’s eyes. He grinned, crooked and mocking, head tipped back to expose the arch of his throat.

“You get off on the thought of fucking a pirate, huh?” he said. “So much for your Navy morals, Captain.”

Jinki reached over and squeezed Jonghyun’s thigh. Jonghyun shivered.

“You get off on my tongue in your mouth, huh?” Jinki said, letting his voice deepen into a smooth purr. “So much for your disdain for the military. And you’ve been staring at me all night. What say we put Taemin’s suggestion into practice? You play nice and call me _sir_ , and I’ll fuck you good and hard.”

Jonghyun’s breathing had sped up. The bulge in his tight pants had grown as his cock hardened eagerly at Jinki’s words and touch. Jinki himself felt breathless, intoxicated with the effect he knew he was having on his pirate enemy.

“Like hell am I going to let you top me,” said Jonghyun. His voice was husky, low. “I’ve got my pride-”

Jinki kissed him. Jonghyun curled a hand over the back of Jinki’s neck and kissed him back. Jinki ran a hand down Jonghyun’s shirtless side. He growled with soft pleasure when Jonghyun arched responsively into the touch, blunt fingernails digging into Jinki’s neck.

Jinki deliberately broke the kiss and grinned. Jonghyun blinked rapidly, like he was trying to clear his head of the delicious haze the kiss had instilled in him, then snatched his hand back.

“Would you like to reconsider your opinion?” said Jinki sweetly.

He smiled, and had the distinct satisfaction of watching Jonghyun bite back a moan, just from that smile. Jonghyun opened his mouth to respond, probably with another snappy retort.

Taemin got there first. “Jonghyun, wait,” he said. “Just- listen to me for a moment, would you?”

He crawled up the bed and leaned over to whisper something into Jonghyun’s ear. Jonghyun’s eyes widened with interest. Jinki’s narrowed suspiciously; Taemin could say the _oddest_ things sometimes.

“Oh,” said Jonghyun. “ _Oh_.” His gaze raked lasciviously up and down Jinki’s body. “Huh. I’ve changed my mind. Bend me over and do me sideways, sir.”

Jinki stared, surprised at this shift in attitude, then turned his stare on Taemin.

“What did you _tell_ him?”

“Oh, nothing,” Taemin said innocently. He wrapped his arms around Jinki and nuzzled their cheeks together. “Just something about the size of your cock and how no one except us is around to hear him beg for it.”

“Shut up, asshole,” said Jonghyun. He lightly slapped Taemin’s hip. Taemin yelped and squirmed, giggling a little.

“Whoa, hey,” said Jinki. He caught Jonghyun’s wrist in his hand and winked. “He’s got a point, you know.”

Jonghyun’s eyes met his, that crooked grin tugging at his lips again. “Oh, really?”

“Yes,” said Jinki. He tightened his grip on Jonghyun’s wrist. “And that would be ‘oh, really, _sir_ ’.”

Jonghyun’s eyes darkened. He licked his lips.

“Sure thing, _sir_.”

Jinki tugged him forward into another kiss. He was not as careful with this kiss as he’d been with the previous two. It was rough and wet and deep, the edge of Jinki’s teeth catching on Jonghyun’s lips. Jonghyun kissed back just as hard, a fist curling tightly in Jinki’s uniform jacket.

The soft pressure of another pair of lips on his neck startled Jinki out of the kiss. He jerked back and looked at Taemin, who pouted.

“C’mon, I want in on the action too,” he said. “Kiss _me_ next.”

Jinki licked Taemin’s nose, and smiled when the priest squeaked.

“I dunno,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “I’m still pissed at you for not _telling_ me that you were friendly with pirates…”

“Then punish me,” Taemin suggested, grinning wickedly. “We can pretend I’m one of your lieutenants who did something wrong and now you have to enforce ship’s ‘ _discipline_ ’ on me.”

Jinki had never heard the word _discipline_ spoken as filthily as that. It stirred something within him.

“Jonghyun,” he said, still holding Taemin’s gaze. “Kiss our erring ‘lieutenant’. And don’t bother being nice about it.”

“Yes, _sir,_ ” said Jonghyun enthusiastically.

Only a moment later he and Taemin were tangled together, panting into each other’s mouths as they made out, hands pawing feverishly at each other. Jinki took a moment to enjoy the show. It certainly made for an attractive sight, Taemin mewling eagerly into Jonghyun’s mouth, fingers tugging Jonghyun’s belt loose. They were both so pretty. Both _his_ for the night.

And he’d had enough of just kissing. It was time to really have fun with this. Jinki unfastened his fly and palmed his cock, thinking. There were so many _possibilities_ , with three of them…

Taemin had worked Jonghyun’s belt off by now. The pirate was writhing out of what little remained of his clothing. Jinki’s eyes ran hungrily up and down Jonghyun’s fit body, desire spiking.

“Enough,” he said, reaching over to pull Taemin gently away. “Commander, on your knees.”

Jonghyun raised an eyebrow. “You know, rank on pirate ships is really not that formal-”

“Are you defying orders, Commander?” said Jinki mildly.

Taemin hummed with amusement. Jonghyun’s eyes widened.

“No, sir!” he said, and scrambled up to kneel on the bed. “Got any orders for me, Captain?”

“Just stay there,” said Jinki. He trailed a finger down one of Jonghyun’s muscular thighs. Jonghyun sucked in a breath. “Lieutenant.”

Taemin’s hand had crept forward to stroke over Jonghyun’s hardening cock. He smiled innocently up at Jinki.

“Yes, sir?”

Jinki smiled back. “Play with him.”

“Yes, _sir_!”

Taemin kissed Jonghyun- first his mouth, then his jawline, then a series of little nibbling kisses down his throat. Jinki watched for a moment, entranced by the way Jonghyun shivered and gasped, eyes fluttering half-shut. Then he positioned himself behind Jonghyun and caught Jonghyun’s wrists. He pulled the pirate flush against him, holding Jonghyun’s hands crossed over his toned abs.

“C’mon, Commander,” he breathed into Jonghyun’s ear. “Make some noise for me.”

Jonghyun groaned, loud and guttural. His head fell back to lie on the shoulder pad of Jinki’s uniform jacket, his breathing fast and shallow with pleasure. Taemin circled his tongue around one of Jonghyun’s stiffened nipples, then blew a puff of air at it. Jonghyun’s hips jerked in response to the shift in sensation, grinding his ass into Jinki’s crotch.

Jinki gave a moan of his own at the friction and held Jonghyun tighter.

“Louder,” he said, and kissed Jonghyun’s neck, sucking hard enough at the sweat-slick skin to leave a mark. “I need a performance evaluation on our lieutenant’s efforts.”

“He’s good,” gasped Jonghyun. He panted for breath, hips rolling forward again when Taemin’s lips drifted lower, to nip at the inside of his thighs and lap at the leaking head of his cock. “He- shit- _nnggg_!”

The sounds that came out of Jonghyun’s mouth then were nowhere near coherent; Taemin must have done something truly amazing with his tongue. Jonghyun’s back arched hard and his eyes rolled up in his head as he lost track of what he’d been saying.

“How unprofessional, Commander,” Jinki murmured, tongue circling at the bite mark he’d left on Jonghyun’s skin. “Your report is inconclusive.”

“Fuck you,” moaned Jonghyun, shuddering hard against Jinki’s front. “How the fuck do you make paperwork sound so hot...oh gods, _Taemin_ -”

Jinki bit down on his ear, none too gently. “Rank will be used on the bridge, Commander.”

“The-the bridge?”

“Mm-hmmm,” Jinki hummed. He rubbed his thumbs over the pulse points of Jonghyun’s wrists. “My favourite place to _discipline_ insubordinate officers. I’m thinking of bending you over the weapons console and screwing you until you can’t remember how to lace your own boots. Of course,” he added thoughtfully. “I’ll have the console powered down first, so we don’t accidentally shoot anything when I fuck you into the torpedo panel…”

Jonghyun moaned again, though whether at these words or at the fact that Taemin had sucked his cock into his mouth, Jinki didn’t know. It didn’t really matter. Still holding Jonghyun’s wrists crossed with one hand, Jinki lifted the other and slid two fingers into Jonghyun’s mouth. Jonghyun sucked them in, tongue curling playfully around their length.

The soft rasp of Jonghyun’s tongue against his skin made Jinki gasp and rut harder against Jonghyun’s ass. He felt a chuckle rumble through Jonghyun’s body at this gasp. Jinki’s eyes narrowed. He’d never been extraordinarily competitive, but with the sting of two defeats by these pirates still lingering within him, he felt a driving, determined need to knock all the cocky smugness out of Jonghyun. He wanted to take the pirate hard, to fuck him into the sheets until he was sweaty and panting and begging for more, to _finally_ claim a victory over his enemy.

Jonghyun wouldn’t be so fucking full of himself if he were full of Jinki’s cock, writhing about and whimpering with incoherent, needy pleasure. Jinki moaned at this mental image, and suddenly couldn’t wait any longer.

“Lieutenant,” he said, casually sliding a third finger into the wet heat of Jonghyun’s mouth. “Sit back. I have new orders for you.”

Taemin let Jonghyun’s cock slip out of his mouth with a slick, wet sound. He grinned, lips swollen and glistening from how they’d been stretched taut around Jonghyun’s length.

“Yes, sir?” He ran a hand through his sweat-mussed dark hair. “What did you have in mind?”

“I want you to touch yourself,” said Jinki. His gaze locked with Taemin’s; despite the priest’s light tone, his eyes were darkly intent, his breathing fast and eager and shallow. “Put on a show for us, Lieutenant.”

“Aye, Captain,” said Taemin. He licked his lips, slow, deliberate, teasing. Then he settled back on his heels, kneeling opposite Jonghyun.

Jinki nearly lost his focus on finger-fucking Jonghyun’s mouth when Taemin began to follow orders and touch himself. His clever fingers slid over his slender frame, circling over all the sensitive spots he knew he liked. Small pink nipples were rolled between the fingers most practiced at playing with them, eliciting a drawn-out groan of pleasure from between cock-swollen lips.

Jinki forced himself to concentrate. Taemin looked _so_ gorgeously fuckable right now, but Jinki had a plan, and that plan involved Jonghyun, despite the obscenely distracting noises Taemin was making as he pleasured himself for his ‘officer’s’ enjoyment.

Jinki slid his fingers out of Jonghyun’s mouth.

“You know, you outrank him, Commander,” Jinki murmured into Jonghyun’s ear. Jonghyun shivered against him, back pressing into the buttons on Jinki’s uniform. “Feel free to command him.”

“Best idea you’ve had all night, Captain,” Jonghyun said. The implied insult in his tone didn’t go very far; his voice was rough, heavy with desire. “Hey, Lieutenant,” he called, lifting his head to catch Taemin’s gaze. “Stroke your cock. Yeah, like that, nice and fucking slow…”

Taemin whimpered, head flung back and thighs trembling, as he obediently lowered a hand to curl around his stiff cock, stroking it exactly as Jonghyun wanted him to.

 _Gods_ , he was beautiful.

It took every ounce of willpower Jinki possessed to tear his eyes away from the tempting sight. Jonghyun, of course, had no other considerations, and so continued to stare hungrily at Taemin. He snapped out orders every once in a while and traced his fingers over his own hard cock. Taemin followed these orders with a wicked curl of his lips, eyes gazing sinfully at Jonghyun from beneath lowered dark lashes.

Jinki fished the necessary supplies out of his uniform jacket pocket. Barely a moment later, condom rolled on, he nudged Jonghyun’s thighs apart and circled a lube-slick finger at his entrance. Jonghyun gasped, twitched at the contact and splayed his legs wider.

“Good job, officer,” purred Jinki. He placed a soft kiss between Jonghyun’s shoulder blades, then worked two fingers in. Jonghyun relaxed around him, breath hitching. “You’re performing your duties admirably.”

Jonghyun groaned, legs sliding farther apart as he tried to sink down further onto Jinki’s fingers. “What the fuck does that even mean?”

Jinki pushed a third finger in and thrust carefully up into Jonghyun’s tight heat. Jonghyun made a high-pitched little noise in the back of his throat, hips jerking.

“Of course, that attitude of yours is much too insufferable,” Jinki mused, stroking his fingers through Jonghyun’s body, searching… “I’m going to have to teach you quite the lesson, Commander.”

Ah, there it was. Any retort Jonghyun might have made was cut off by Jinki rubbing the pad of a finger against the sweet spot near Jonghyun’s prostate. The pirate forgot all about mouthing off and cried out instead, ass clenching with pleasure around Jinki’s slick fingers.

“Captain,” said Taemin, voice rough, cock veined and bobbing stiffly between his legs. “Please, I need someone to _touch_ me-”

Jinki needed that as well. He’d held off for far too long, his cock almost painfully hard from the sight of Jonghyun mewling greedily at the curl of the fingers inside him. Jinki nodded, placed one hand on Jonghyun’s muscled back, and shoved him onto his hands and knees.

“Wait just a moment, Lieutenant,” Jinki said. He slipped his fingers out of Jonghyun’s body, ignoring Jonghyun’s growl of displeasure at this. “I think our slut of a Commander would like something nice and thick in his mouth. What say you, officer?”

“Yeah, _fuck_ ,” said Jonghyun, arching his back a little so that his ass rose higher in the air, hole squeezing with obscene eagerness. “Anything, just someone fucking _do something_ to me-”

Jinki ran a hand over his own cock, ensuring it was still slippery with lube. “That would be: _can someone fucking do something to me_ , sir,” he said, and drove himself into the slick heat of Jonghyun’s body.

Jonghyun gave a low yell and clenched around him, back bowing to take Jinki further in. Jinki groaned at how fucking _tight_ Jonghyun was around his cock. He dug his fingers into Jonghyun’s narrow hips and sank deeper until his balls were flush against Jonghyun’s skin.

The pirate shuddered beneath him. “Fuck, you’re so fucking _big_ -” He gasped when Jinki rocked his hips a little. “Shit, Captain, I need-”

“What do you need?” asked Jinki. He continued to roll his hips very gently, stroking teasingly inside Jonghyun. “Ask me nicely, and I might give it to you, Commander.”

Jonghyun moaned, sucking in a sharp breath when Jinki rocked in a little harder, stretching him wide.

“I need you to fuck me, Captain, like fucking _now_ -”

Jinki pulled back so that only the head of his cock remained inside Jonghyun and thrust very shallowly into Jonghyun’s body. Jonghyun whimpered at the sudden lack of large cock filling him deep.

“I think you can do better than that, Commander,” said Jinki. He caught Taemin’s dark-eyed, frustrated gaze and winked. “I said _nicely_.” Then he plunged back in with sudden force, making Jonghyun brace himself with bulging arm muscles to keep his face from being smashed into the mattress.

Jonghyun’s fingers dug into the sheets. “Please, sir, fuck me, I need you to fucking _fuck_ me, sir-”

“That’s more like it,” Jinki purred appreciatively, and began to _move_.

Jonghyun was very vocal in bed; he let out a nearly continuous stream of incoherent curses and the occasional _please sir_ as Jinki fucked him. His body tightened responsively around Jinki’s cock, drowning him in an intoxicating haze of primal pleasure. Gods, it was everything, being the one to fuck the cocky pirate into this desperate, keening mess…

“Lieutenant,” Jinki gasped, panting for breath and barely remembering to call Taemin by his fake rank. “Your cock- his mouth-”

“Yes, _sir_ ,” said Taemin, running a hand promisingly over his cock.

Jinki slowed the pace of his thrusts again. Jonghyun made a disappointed mewl and tried to fuck himself back onto Jinki’s cock. Jinki stroked his side to calm him, waiting as Taemin caught Jonghyun’s face in his hands and guided him forward. Jonghyun licked playfully at the smeared pre-come on the head of Taemin’s cock, then swallowed him down.

They fucked him between them slowly at first, carefully; Jinki didn’t want to accidentally suffocate him on Taemin’s cock. This carefulness didn’t last long. Even on his hands and knees with one cock in his mouth and another filling up his ass, Jonghyun was as impatiently demanding as ever. He rocked himself forward to deep-throat Taemin, then arched back into Jinki’s hands, sucking in a quick, dizzy breath as Jinki’s cock plunged deep into his body.

It was all Jinki could do to keep from pounding into Jonghyun’s welcoming hole with complete abandon. The sight of the pirate writhing beneath them, shamelessly enjoying being roughly fucked back and forth across the bed, was more than enough to bring him to the edge of his self-control. And this was saying something; Jinki had a _lot_ of self-control.

“Fuck, Captain…” Taemin groaned, fingers tightening in the sweaty mess of Jonghyun’s hair. “I can’t- I need-”

Jinki sank balls-deep into Jonghyun’s tight heat and leaned forward. Taemin blinked, smirked in understanding, and did the same. Their lips met in a light kiss, tongues licking at the edges of each other’s mouths. Taemin moaned and leaned further forward to deepen the kiss. Jonghyun squirmed beneath them, trembling hard and making strangled little noises of pleasure around the girth of Taemin’s cock shoved into his throat.

Taemin’s eyes rolled back into his head . He broke away from Jinki’s lips with a hitched gasp.

“Shit- Jonghyun- _tongue_ -” he said, and came hard into Jonghyun’s mouth.

Jinki held Jonghyun still as the pirate swallowed down most of Taemin’s seed, the remainder dripping past his lips and down his chin. His tongue darted out and licked playfully at the head of Taemin’s cock while Taemin shuddered out the aftershocks of orgasm, panting, fingers clenching and unclenching in Jonghyun’s hair.

Jinki felt Jonghyun draw in a breath- probably to say something smug about his cock-sucking abilities- and didn’t give him the chance. With no need now for even a shred of carefulness, Jinki rolled his hips hard, fucking into Jonghyun with a rough, fast rhythm that had the pirate keening with need in barely any time at all.

“Tell me how much you want me,” Jinki demanded, breathing hard, fingers digging tightly enough into Jonghyun’s hips to leave bruises. “Tell me how much you like my cock inside of you.”

Jonghyun moaned, loud and high-pitched, almost a wail as Jinki stroked hard into him, making the bed rock against the wall.

“Fucking hell,” Jonghyun panted, low and desperate, sweaty muscles trembling. “I want you, Captain, I love this, please sir, your cock feels so fucking _good_ sir-”

Jinki growled, the sound of Jonghyun willingly calling him _sir_ very nearly driving him over the edge. He thrust harder, faster, rougher, skin slapping against skin as Jonghyun cried out and begged helplessly for _more sir, please sir, harder sir_ , all pride forgotten.

Taemin had insinuated himself underneath Jonghyun at some point and was doing something to him Jinki couldn’t see. Judging by Jonghyun’s incoherent pleading, Jinki suspected Taemin had one of Jonghyun’s nipples in his mouth, and both hands on Jonghyun’s cock. The sense-memory of Taemin doing the same to him sent spiraling shocks of intense pleasure down his spine, making him moan just as loudly as Jonghyun. He fucked the pirate harder, shuddering at the very edge of release, _needing_ to fall over that delicious, intoxicating cliff-

Jonghyun got there first, barely a second before Jinki’s own orgasm was wrung out of him by the incredible sensation of Jonghyun’s body squeezing hot and tight around his sensitive, painfully hard cock. They rode out their climax together, Jonghyun with an obscene yell and Jinki with a snarl of pleasure as his cock pulsed hard, shooting hot come into the confines of the condom.

When the haze of pleasure had cleared enough for Jinki to be able to process actual thought once more, he found himself lying on top of Jonghyun, who was sandwiched between him and Taemin. Taemin had his arms around a still-shivering Jonghyun and was kissing his jawline with a fierce tenderness.

Jinki, oddly, felt no jealousy now. Whether this was because he was too drunk, exhausted or well-fucked to care, he didn’t know. It wasn’t important. Without bothering to pull out of Jonghyun, he gently stroked the pirate’s hip to calm his trembling.

“Shh, it’s all right,” he murmured softly into Jonghyun’s skin. “You were _fantastic_.”

“You’re too fucking nice for a military bastard,” Jonghyun muttered finally, voice raw from all the screaming he’d been doing. “Good with your cock, too, how dare you.”

Jinki chuckled, strangely not annoyed. He could feel the rumble of Taemin’s quiet laughter vibrating through Jonghyun’s body.

He kissed Jonghyun’s back, smiling.

“I should be pissed at _you_ ,” he said. “I’ve sweated clean through this jacket. It will be _so_ fucking disgusting tomorrow morning.”

Jonghyun and Taemin both laughed at that. Jinki grinned and nuzzled his face into the space between Jonghyun’s shoulder blades. Horrifically sweaty uniform or no, it had been a _very_ good night after all.

~~~

Minho woke, warm. He breathed in a strangely familiar scent, soft hair tickling his mouth when he breathed out. He had someone lying in his arms, spooned in front of him, every bit as naked as he was. There was also a dull ache in his ass and a nasty taste in his mouth that suggested the aftereffects of a drunken night out.

Minho opened his eyes. Unfamiliar wooden walls stared back at him. He blinked, last night’s memories flooding through him.

_Holy shit, I slept with Key again._

Minho gazed down at the top of Key’s head. His lover didn’t stir, continuing to sleep quietly and peacefully in Minho’s arms.

 _He said he loved me. He said it, and he_ meant _it._

He couldn’t help it; he tightened his hold on Key, crushing him to his chest and burying his face in Key’s soft hair. He felt…he didn’t know how he felt. There were no words for the sort of emotion that flooded through him now, too intense to describe. It was almost the same way he’d felt when he’d realized Key thought Minho no longer wanted him, when the _wrongness_ of that assumption had shot through him. It was a constant of the universe that Choi Minho would always want Kim Kibum, and he hadn’t been able to stand seeing the hurt in Key’s eyes when the pirate had believed this constant shattered.

 _Pirate_.

Minho let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. It might be useless now to deny that he loved Key every bit as fiercely as he always had, but the underlying problem had not changed. Key was an outlaw, a pirate, and his enemy. Somehow, they were going to have to deal with that.

“Nnnghhnnggg,” said Key, shifting sleepily. “You trying to crush my lungs, babe?”

“Sorry,” said Minho guiltily. He relaxed his embrace a little. Then he smiled, an embarrassingly sappy smile, because Key had called him _babe_ with such casual affection.

He kissed the top of Key’s head. Key yawned widely and stretched, squirming about to work the sleep from his bones. Then he went suddenly, absolutely still.

“Minho?”

“Yes?” said Minho cautiously. He reached out and rested a hand on Key’s hip, not quite sure to make of the sudden guarded wariness in Key’s tone.

Key stayed frozen for another split second, then rolled over so that they were face to face, noses touching. Key had terrible morning breath, but for once Minho didn’t care about the warm odor of stale alcohol.

“You’re still here,” Key breathed softly, lips tugging up into a bright, sweet smile. “I thought you might have freaked and left-”

“No,” Minho said. He found Key’s hand and tangled their fingers together. “Didn’t I tell you I loved you?”

Key’s smile went hesitant, a little shy. “Yeah, but-”

“No buts about it,” said Minho, and pressed his lips briefly to the clasp of their knuckles. “If I could, I’d stay with you forever.”

Key craned his neck forward then, and caught Minho’s lips in a kiss. Key’s mouth tasted every bit as awful as his breath smelled, but Minho didn’t care about that, either. He’d forgotten how much he’d missed waking up each morning to Key in his bed, to tender morning kisses and soft touches of calloused fingers against bare skin.

Eventually, Key sighed and broke the kiss.

“You can’t stay, though,” he said. He sat up and looked down at Minho with quiet eyes. “You won’t.”

Minho sighed and heaved himself up into a sitting position as well, wincing a little at the ache in his ass.

“Yeah, well, it’s not like you’d ever stay with me, either,” he pointed out with perhaps a little more sting than was strictly necessary. Love Key he might, but he hadn’t quite forgiven him for abandoning him all those years ago.

If Key was bothered by the jab, he didn’t show it. Instead, he just frowned and ran his gaze down Minho’s body.

“Are you all right?” he asked, brows scrunching with concern. “You’re sitting kind of stiffly…did I hurt you last night?”

“What?” said Minho. He shook his head. “No, of course you didn’t. I just, er, haven’t done that sort of thing in years.”

Key raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t had sex in _years_?” he said, surprised.

Minho tried not to think about the implications of this, about the fact that it probably meant that Key himself had slept with someone in the years they’d been apart. Jealousy was highly irrational for a number of reasons in this circumstance, but Minho nonetheless felt an irritated desire to strangle anyone else who’d ever had their hands on Key.

He ignored the feeling and answered Key’s question instead.

“No, I’ve slept with people,” he said and had the distinct satisfaction of seeing a flicker of jealous annoyance cross Key’s face. “I’ve just never let anyone but you wreck my ass quite like that.”

He tried to say this in a dry tone, with casual humour. It came out far more intensely than he’d intended, simply because of how true it was. Key’s touch made him lose control and _want_ things far more than anyone else’s ever had.

Key smiled at his confession, smug, dimpled and pleased.

“Good,” he said with fierce contentment. “You’re _mine_.”

Minho shivered at that declaration, morning wood taking a renewed interest in the conversation.

“You’re mine, too,” he said, reaching out to cup Key’s cheek in the palm of his hand. Key nuzzled into the touch, smiling wider. “My own pretty little pirate.”

Key rolled his eyes, then smirked down at Minho’s crotch. Or, more specifically, the hardening cock rising from it.

“Looks like someone is up for round two,” Key purred. He stretched out a hand to brush his fingers teasingly over the head of Minho’s cock. “Hmmm?”

“I don’t think my ass is up for another pounding,” said Minho dryly. His breath hitched when Key took him more firmly into hand. “If you want to jerk me off, on the other hand…”

“Oh, no, that’s boring,” said Key, with wide-eyed false innocence. “I was thinking _you_ could fuck _me_. In the shower. Nice and hard against the wall.”

Minho grinned and pulled Key to him.

“I like this plan,” he said, and kissed him again, forgetting for the moment anything but the delicious prospect of a morning spent with his beautiful lover.

~~~

Jonghyun woke with one hell of a headache. It took him a moment to figure out where he was, brain momentarily confused by the unusual situation of being sandwiched between two warm and naked bodies.

Once his mind caught up to the happenings of last night, he grinned despite the hangover stirring nauseously in his stomach. He didn’t usually go down the whole submissive _please fuck me sir_ route, but shit, last night had been hella worth it. He stretched a little, grin widening at the lingering tenderness in his ass. Who’d have known sweet-faced Captain Lee Jinki would be such a fucking tiger in bed?

He managed to wriggle out of the bed without waking either Jinki or Taemin and staggered to the bathroom. He did the necessary, heaved some of the queasiness into the toilet, washed his mouth out and wandered back into the bedroom.

Jinki was still asleep, which didn’t surprise Jonghyun. The good captain had had almost as much to drink as he’d had. Taemin was awake, however, yawning sleepily and nuzzling his face into Jinki’s shoulder.

“Hey,” said Jonghyun. He carefully bent over to scoop up the discarded clothes on the floor. “Good morning.”

“Nghaanrrggghh,” said Taemin. He flopped an arm over Jinki’s side.

Jonghyun chuckled and began sorting out whose clothes were whose, setting them into neat piles on the bed.

“Quite a night, huh? That captain of yours is something else.”

Taemin huffed and rolled over, pouting. “You’ve never bottomed for _me_ like that.”

Jonghyun flung a sock at him. Taemin yelped quietly.

“I’ve got two pieces of advice for you, then,” Jonghyun said. He smirked. “Find a sexy captain’s uniform and get a bigger dick.”

Taemin flung the sock back. His aim was completely off; the sock missed Jonghyun’s head by about five feet and landed just inside the bathroom instead. Jonghyun stifled a snicker.

“It’s fine,” said Taemin, aggrieved. He sat up. “Just you wait until I tell Captain Key how hard you begged for a _Navy officer_ to fuck you up the ass-”

“You tell him anything, and I will end you,” Jonghyun growled.

He dangled another sock dangerously by the toe. Taemin just blinked at him, eyes going wide and sweet, lips quivering. Jonghyun sighed; there was no resisting that pretty face.

“Whatever,” he conceded gruffly, dropping the sock. “It’s not like he’s got any room to comment, seeing as how desperate he is to bang that stiff-necked Navy commander…”

Taemin blew out a gusty sigh. “They’re in love,” he said dreamily. “It’s so cute.”“Yeah, cute until it gets us all killed,” Jonghyun muttered. Taemin knew he was only complaining for the sake of complaining. “That bloody plot of his with the star orbs is _completely_ unnecessary. I mean, if we just _sold_ the things, we’d be rich for the rest of our lives-”

He cut himself off when Jinki stirred, rolling over and groaning. Well now, it looked like he wasn’t the only one with a severe hangover.

“Hey, Cap’n,” he said cheerfully, tickling Jinki’s feet. Jinki drew his legs up with a resentful frown. “Good morning!”

“Ignore him,” Taemin advised. He patted Jinki’s hip. “He’s always annoying until he gets some coffee in him.”

Jinki made a vaguely nauseous noise, probably at the sound of their voices. He blinked blearily at Jonghyun.

“Oh gods,” he said, voice rough with sleep still. “Did I- did we really-”

Jonghyun beamed at him, lips curving into a crooked grin. “We had a fucking fantastic threesome last night, Captain,” he affirmed. “Of course,” and here he leaned forward, eyes narrowed. “If you ever breathe a word of it to anyone, I will _destroy_ your ship the next time we encounter her.”

Jinki yawned again. “What, and waste a good source of profit? Please. At least _try_ to keep your threats believable, pirate.”

Taemin snickered. Jonghyun glared at him. That was the downside to fucking around with Navy sailors, he supposed. Civilians could be intimidated into keeping their mouths shut. He sincerely doubted that there was anything he could do to intimidate Lee Jinki.

Which was actually kind of hot, now that he was thinking about it…but still. One intense threesome was more than enough. Jonghyun had reached his quota of kinky sex for the year. He jammed a sock on his left foot and glanced sideways.

Taemin and Jinki were making out quite heavily, Taemin sucking new bruises onto the flawless skin of Jinki’s neck.

Jonghyun peeled the sock back off.

Quotas, he decided, were flexible things.

~~~

The act of separating from Key was the most painful thing Minho had done in years. As they dressed after their shower, neither of them could keep their hands off the other. The impulse to hold Key in his arms forever and never let him go was almost too strong for Minho to resist.

Key apparently felt much the same way; it took them about six tries to get their clothes on properly given how much kissing and cuddling distracted them from noticing that their shirts were on backwards for the third time.

All the same, Minho knew that this couldn’t last forever. He had his duty, and Key had…a pirate crew and crimes to commit.

The moment they stepped out of the room, the door banging closed behind them, Minho nearly broke down and dragged Key back inside. The change in his lover was just too _obvious_. He lifted his head, straightened his shoulders and let a coldly expressionless mask settle across features that had only seconds ago been sweetly contented.

“Kibum…” Minho said softly, curling his fingers around Key’s wrist.

But even the use of Key’s old name had no effect. Key coolly tugged his arm away and stalked down the hall, boots clicking sharply on the floor.

Minho swallowed back a surge of bitter misery and followed. He was losing Key for a second time. And there was no guarantee he’d ever be able to see Key again, much less make love to him as they’d just done.

Still, there was nothing for it. Life was what it was, unfair or no. Minho had dealt with losing half his heart once; he could do it again.

Key paused halfway down the stairs, hesitating, as if he were considering turning around and saying something to Minho. He must have decided against it, for in the end he said nothing and continued down the staircase without a word.

The club apparently doubled as a third-rate restaurant during the day; there were little plastic tables scattered about, and the smell of steaming cheese-rice was strong. Minho wrinkled his nose, squinting at what had been the dancefloor, now currently a salad bar.

He glanced back at Key, only to find him gone.

Minho sighed and miserably stuffed his hands into his pockets.

~~~

Jinki caught sight of Minho the moment he entered the room, accompanied by…was that _Key_?

“Ah,” said Jonghyun, sidling towards the door from where he, Taemin and Jinki had been making their good-byes near the entryway. “The boss is here; I should go…”

Jinki turned to frown at him, but Jonghyun was already gone, the door banging closed behind him.

“Huh,” said Taemin. He stood on his toes and waved at Minho. “It looked like he had fun last night, too.”

Jinki watched, eyes narrowed, as Minho made his way over. Taemin was right; Minho’s usually immaculate uniform was slightly askew, and he had several bite-marks on his neck. The fact that this had undoubtedly been done by the very pirate leader they were trying to catch just made the whole situation that much worse.

At the same time, it wasn’t like Jinki had much room to talk, given his own activities last night. He sighed. It would be hypocrisy itself to scold Minho for what he’d done.

Minho weaved his way over between the tables and came to a halt. A slight smile tugged at his lips.

“You guys had fun, I see.”

Taemin beamed. “I was just saying the same thing about you.”

“Was that _Key,_ Commander?” Jinki broke in before Minho could respond.

The lines of Minho’s face went tight again.

“Yes, sir, it was,” he said quietly. He drew in a tense breath. “I promise it won’t affect my duties as a sailor, sir, but there was no way I could have arrested him last night, and so-”

Jinki put a hand on his arm. “It’s all right,” he said softly. “I won’t mention it.”

Minho stared at him, mouth open, clearly surprised. Taemin patted his other arm reassuringly.

“Last night we-” Taemin began, only to click his mouth closed when Jinki frowned sharply at him.

Minho glanced between them, interested. “Key said he’d stationed some of his crew here,” he said. “Did you two…?”

Taemin nodded. Jinki’s frown deepened.

“Nothing happened here last night,” he said, stressing these words intensely. “Nothing, for _either_ of us.”

Minho got the message; he nodded as well, hand twitching in a suppressed salute.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Jinki sighed. “Let’s get back to the ship.”

He shepherded priest and commander out the door, mind turning already to what would need to be done about the pirates. Now that he knew Key’s crew was on Juliette, they would have to act quickly to find and capture them. Undoubtedly they had their best hackers working here to hide the computer records of where the _Garçons_ was docked. Jinki would have to organize physical sweeps of the moon then, to flush them out.

He sighed again. His one night of fun was over; it was time to go back to work…

~~~

Jonghyun suffered in nerve-wracked silence as Key waxed poetic about the success of last night once they were safely on the _Garçons_.

“These sailors,” he was saying with delighted scorn, twirling a data chip around his fingers. “They never realize how much information us unsavory sorts can pick out of an ID card. They spend too long isolated in space and forget the dangers of highly advanced pickpockets.”

Jonghyun eyed the chip. He was fairly certain that Key’s good mood had as much to do with the discovery that his military ex-boyfriend still harbored feelings for him as it did with his success at copying Minho’s bank records. There had been no mistaking the tender look on the commander’s face when he’d entered the club floor that morning.

Contemplating Key and Minho reminded Jonghyun of his own ‘activities’ last night. He sighed. He was going to have to inform Key of what had happened. Taemin’s little slip could ruin everything.

Of course, he didn’t have to mention the _specifics_ of last night’s romp. After all he’d gone on and on in front of Key about how much of a bad idea it was to get ‘involved’ with the enemy, it would be more than embarrassing to admit he’d gone and gotten thus involved. Key would never let him live it down.

“Captain,” he said, and then when Key ignored him in favour of babbling happily about how life was perfect: “Captain!Yo, _sir_!”

Key paused, blinked. “Since when do you call me sir?” he asked bemusedly.

Jonghyun winced. “Never mind that,” he said hastily. “We have a problem.”

Key frowned. “A problem?”

Jonghyun nodded. “Taemin brought the _SHINee_ ’s captain to the club last night and accidentally told him who I was. It’s likely that Captain Lee will now be very suspicious of the kid, given that he knows he’s friendly with us…”

Key considered that for a moment, fingers tapping against his side. Then he shrugged.

“They still think he’s a priest, don’t they?” he said. “I wouldn’t worry about it. We should have possession of the _SHINee_ ’s security key within the week. Even Taemin can avoid putting his foot in his mouth for that long.”

Jonghyun wasn’t so sure about either of these things, but he kept his mouth shut. He tried to focus on the positive instead. Last night had gone mostly as planned, save for Taemin’s screw-up. The _SHINee_ ’s crew now knew they were on the moon, and so would remain _on_ Juliette in order to hunt them down. Now all Key’s crew had to do was keep the sailors from capturing them while they waited for Taemin to send the signal.

Of course, that might not prove to be as easy as it sounded…

Key reached over and clapped Jonghyun reassuringly on the shoulder.

“Stop worrying,” he said sternly. “You’ll give yourself an ulcer if you keep that up.” He paused and peered closer at Jonghyun’s neck. “Hey, is that…?”

Jonghyun flushed and clapped a hand to his neck. He’d forgotten all about the bite-mark there.

“It’s nothing,” he said hastily.

“Mm-hmm,” Key hummed, amused. “It couldn’t _possibly_ be a hickey, not on ‘Mr. It’s Bad for Business to Sleep with the Enemy’, oh no.”

Jonghyun glared at him. Key cackled unmercifully, half-falling over and clinging to a railing for support. A strand of his long hair got caught in the buttons of his jacket; he yelped in pain and gazed wide-eyed at Jonghyun in a silent plea for him to untangle it.

And this was the brains behind their biggest scheme yet. Jonghyun sighed and began working Key’s hair loose. At least Key had proven his ability to pull this sort of thing off several times before, which was more than one could say for Taemin. Jonghyun would just have to trust in Key’s skills, like always.

~~~


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading this, even with my slow as hell updates~ Hopefully this last part doesn't disappoint!

* * *

Jinki traced a hand through the air, fingers highlighting lines through the holographic map of Juliette. He didn’t trust the moon’s local security to handle the search for the pirates, but the _SHINee_ didn’t have enough crew to conduct a thorough by-the-book search on its own.

Thus, they would have to be clever about this. There weren’t a whole lot of places one could hide a starship, after all, even one as small as the _Comme des Garçons._

“Suggestions?” Jinki asked finally, once he’d outlined the search pattern plans in detail.

Minho scrunched his face up, staring intently at the map. He lifted a hand and touched one of the smaller hangars in the seedier side of town.

“That one is going to be dangerous to search, sir,” he said. “Even the local police force doesn’t patrol there.”

“The local force is corrupt as hell, and incompetent to boot,” said Jinki tartly. Minho did have a point, however, so he sighed and called up a notepad app. “I’ll request permission from Juliette’s governor for us to do an armed shuttle flyover during the search. It can’t hurt to be careful.”

“Good idea, sir,” Minho agreed as Jinki marked this idea down. “The shuttle might distract the pirates as well. I’m afraid that if we do actually find the _Garçons_ , the pirates will outnumber and kill the search team…”

“Which is why we’re going to be discreet about it, Commander,” Jinki said. He closed the notepad and spun the map around once more, checking it again. “If you have no more suggestions, I think I’ll start sending the first sweeps out tonight.”

“Yes, sir,” Minho said. His fingers twitched, as if he were resisting an urge to play with the hem of his jacket cuffs. “Are you planning on personally leading any of the searches?”

“Yes, at some point,” said Jinki. He exited out of the map, blinking as its shimmering existence faded from the air. “I’ll need to; we have barely enough crew as it is to man all the sweeps necessary.”

Minho sighed. “Then I’ll be leading a search too, I suppose.”

“Multiple searches,” said Jinki. His eyes narrowed at his second in command. “I trust that won’t be a problem for you, Commander?”

Minho stiffened, chin tilting up. “No, sir,” he said, tones stilted and formal. “No problem at all.”

Jinki eyed him for a moment; Minho had been in a very odd mood indeed since leaving the club that morning. All the same, he’d conducted himself professionally thus far, with the only exception being his little incident with Key last night.

And Jinki himself hardly had a leg to stand on with regards to last night and associating with pirates. He let out a breath and told himself to stop worrying so much. Minho would do his job just fine; he always did.

“Good,” Jinki said. He waved a hand at Minho. “You’re dismissed, Commander.”

“Sir,” said Minho. He clicked his heels together, saluted, then turned and left.

Jinki chewed his lip for a moment, anxieties threatening to resurface, then shook his head and got back to work.

~~~

Jonghyun squatted in an alleyway full of discarded beer cans and broken glass. A large unit of police officers marched down the street adjacent to the alleyway, banging on doors and peering obnoxiously through windows. The annoyed citizenry of the street responded with yells and loud curses, and as such, there abounded general mayhem and chaos.

Jonghyun, for his part, leaned his forehead against a rusty, overflowing trash barrel and sighed. There were roughly two halves to Juliette’s police force- the half on the payroll of the local criminal big shots and the half that was entirely useless. The latter half included these fools out on the street right now; how likely was it that Key’s crew would be chilling on a nice street in broad daylight in a _candy shop_?

Jonghyun rolled his eyes. Not likely at all, of course. Far more dangerous than this nonsense were the sweep teams from the _SHINee_ , who remained inconspicuous and incognito until they fucking _jumped_ you in the street and hauled you in cuffs back to their ship.

That had happened yesterday to the _Garçons’_   communications officer. Likely the sweep teams had recognized her face from a hand-held police scanner, which would have identified her as wanted in six different systems for arson, piracy, murder and forging her divorce paperwork.

And it was about to happen to Jonghyun right now if he wasn’t careful.

He peered at the ruckus on the main street again, careful to stay low, unmoving and out of sight. His eyes scanned the crowd, dismissing as irrelevant indignant shop-owners, infuriated pedestrians and incompetent policemen.

Ah, there it was: the barest shadow of movement from two of the café patrons who had not been there the last time Jonghyun had looked. One was short, green-skinned and had grown a leathery tail since Jonghyun had last spotted her. The other was tall, dark-haired and had bluish spines protruding from his back.

The spines hadn’t been there either five minutes ago.

Jonghyun’s calves started to cramp from crouching in the alleyway. He winced and surreptitiously eased himself onto his knees. This pair of soldiers was _good_. They’d gone through about six different disguises since they’d started trailing Jonghyun two hours ago. He hadn’t been able to shake them and hadn’t had time to call for help. Nor could he afford just to go to the _Garçons_ ; his fellow crew members might be able to kill the pair of soldiers, but not before said pair would be able to inform the _SHINee_ of the _Garçons_ ’ whereabouts.

The two sailors hadn’t noticed Jonghyun yet, and this was the longest he’d been able to remain out of sight from them. They would of course see him if he foolishly tried to get up and make a run from it, but maybe he could take advantage of the current nonsense going on in the streets, and contact _someone._

He slipped his hand into his pocket and fished his communicator out, only to curse quietly when he noticed he’d pulled out the wrong one. Oh well, he didn’t have time to waste, and this would do as well for a distraction as anything else.

It would maybe even work _better_.

Still keeping a careful watch on the two soldiers in the café out of the corner of his eye, Jonghyun activated the communicator, punched in the appropriate code and held his breath.

He had a response within seconds, thank _fuck_.

_\---hey wassup y do u need help pretty boy?_

Jonghyun bit his lip hard to stifle a groan. Was it _too fucking much_ to ask that Taemin be professional for once in his goddamn life, especially in a life or death situation like this?

_\---i sent you the emergency assistance requested code, not a fucking pick-up line! 2 shinee soldiers are trailing me and i cant lose them, help???_

He waited for the answer, shifting nervously as the green soldier stared ominously into the alleyway, unblinking.

_\---where r u?_

Jonghyun growled quietly and typed in a response with unnecessary force.

_\---use the fucking tracker u incompetent excuse for a computer geek_

_\---heyheyhey no need 2 b rude damnnnnnnnnnnnnnn boyy_

Jonghyun squeezed his eyes shut for several seconds, resisting the urge to fling the communicator across the street. He was going to be professionally embarrassed if anyone ever looked at the chat logs on this thing.

_\---ok ok i c u duck_

Duck? Jonghyun wasted no time in obeying this instruction, however, no matter how bizarre it seemed. He let himself crumple into a tight ball on the ground, forehead pressed against the pavement, arms folded over the back of his head.

As he did so, he caught a quick glimpse of the spiny soldier standing upright. Jonghyun flinched, anticipating unconsciousness by stun bolt any second-

And then everything exploded.

A mix of roaring flame and gushing water bombarded the street. Shouts of indignation turned to screams of terror as people fled from the bang of fiery explosions, only to be knocked off their feet by sudden heavy rivers of water smashing against anything in their path. Jonghyun scrambled to his feet, a little wet from a sudden sprinkling waterfall overhead but otherwise unhurt.

The green soldier, he saw, was injured, smoke rising from one shoulder. The other soldier was distracted by their crewmember’s wound and was therefore not looking at the alleyway where Jonghyun was standing.

Jonghyun shoved the communicator into his pocket and broke out into a dead run. He didn’t stop for a full fifteen minutes, until he was absolutely sure the soldiers were no longer anywhere near his vicinity. Then he fished out the communicator again and texted Taemin back.

_\---holy shit thank you what the fuck did you DO??_

The answer came quickly, smug:

_\---good 2 hear from u i thought for a sec i had killed u by accident oops haha :p it was easy tho i just sent a command thru the automated heating systems to explode sum pipes n shit and BOOM hahaha_

Jonghyun huffed softly. That was Taemin for you, annoying as hell and yet somehow also indispensably useful and inexplicably endearing.

_\---thanks man i owe you one. stay safe and complete the mission, ok?_

_\---k_

Jonghyun waited, but barely a second later an error message scrolled across his screen to inform him that the other side of the line had disconnected.

Jonghyun rolled his eyes and stuffed the communicator away again. How the hell he was going to explain this to Key, he didn’t know, but hey, at least he was alive, right? That was by far the most important thing.

He set off down the street, whistling and hyper-alert for any sign of soldiers.

~~~

Taemin stowed the communicator away again, careful to turn it off as he did so. The device had been designed very specially to work even through military firewalls and across interstellar distances, while still resembling any ordinary hand-held communicator. It had cost Key a pretty penny to order made, and if Taemin didn’t follow through on his assignment, well, he knew that having the price of the thing docked from his usual pay wouldn’t be the worst of what would happen to him. Key was not a very merciful boss.

But then, he _was_ a pirate captain. If Taemin had wanted to work for someone nice, he’d have gone into hologame programming. But that would have been _unbearably_ boring.

Speaking of boring…Taemin ran through his latest work on the mission. His head hurt from several hours of kneeling in the chapel, pretending to read a book of prayers on his tablet as he studied lines and lines of code. He wasn’t going to be able to get anything done for a while yet, he decided, not until he’d had a break first.

And he knew exactly what he wanted to do on said break.

It didn’t take him long to make his way to Jinki’s quarters. The light on top of the door was green, indicating that the captain was indeed inside. Taemin pressed his palm to the security pad next to the door and waited to see if Jinki would let him in.

The doors hissed open in barely seconds. Taemin stepped through, smiling with relief at the ready invitation; Jinki had been a bit wary of him since learning he knew the pirates. Fortunately, Jinki’s suspicion only ran to Taemin being vaguely religiously affiliated with them.

“Captain!” said Taemin, injecting his voice with innocent cheer. “What’s up?”

Jinki glanced up at him from where he was curled up on his bed. He’d been reading something on a holotablet, brows furrowed as he absorbed the information.

“Taemin,” he said. He smiled and patted the space on the sheets beside him. “C’mere?”

Taemin beamed and danced over to the bed. He climbed up onto it and tucked himself into Jinki’s side. Curious about what was on the tablet, he scooted closer and peered over Jinki’s shoulder.

> _The hacker network of the pirate Key is said to contain several prominent members of the intergalactic cybercrime underworld. Most worrying are the reports that the hacker codenamed Dancer has recently become affiliated with Key. Dancer is said to not only be an expert at computer and communications systems but at several forms of martial arts as well…_

Taemin stopped reading. It was all very dry and boring, and he really didn’t need Jinki thinking overmuch about hackers. He nudged Jinki’s shoulder with his own.

“C’mon,” he said. “Who cares about hackers? Let’s have fun.”

Jinki rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He turned off the tablet and set it aside.

“Do _you_ know which hackers work for Key?” he asked, gazing intently at Taemin. “Since you know him and all…”  
  
“I only kind of know him,” Taemin protested. He put a hopeful hand on Jinki’s chest. “I told you; it’s not like he discusses important pirate-y information with me.”

Jinki sighed and tugged Taemin into a quick kiss. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “There was just some incident not even half an hour ago with exploding pipes, and what with our difficulties in finding the _Garçons_ in the first place I _know_ Key has some good hackers working for him, and if I could just _fucking find them_ -”

“Shh,” said Taemin. He straddled Jinki’s excellent thighs and leaned their foreheads together. “Relax, Captain. You’ll find them eventually. You’re good at what you do.” He contorted his face into a leering wink. “ _Really_ good.”

Jinki laughed, relaxing from his frustrated rant. He started undoing the buttons on Taemin’s shirt.

“Is that a come-on?”

“You bet,” said Taemin, and bent to kiss him again.

~~~

“Captain’s on the lower deck,” one of the helmsmen informed Jonghyun after he arrived back at the _Garçons_ , still a little damp from his adventure earlier that day. “I wouldn’t go and talk to him yet, though.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Captain’s in a _mood_.”

Jonghyun paused. He weighed the virtues of going to speak with a dangerously pissed-off Key now versus speaking with a dangerously pissed-off Key later, when he’d have to deal with also explaining to Key why he hadn’t informed him _sooner_ about his close shave with the soldiers.

There was, of course, also the fact to consider that Jonghyun was probably the safest person on the ship when it came to encountering a severely annoyed Key.

“I’ll take my chances,” he decided. He winked at the dubious expression on the helmsman’s face. “Don’t worry; I’ll make it out alive.”

“Minus a limb or two, sure,” the man muttered, but made no further protest when Jonghyun just laughed and started off down the corridor.

He arrived at the lower deck in no time and quickly found Key pacing back and forth in one of the little anterooms attached to the star lookout area. The captain had a communicator pressed between one shoulder and an ear, and a look of murderous fury on his face.

Key’s eyes fell upon Jonghyun as soon as Jonghyun entered the room. He pressed a finger to his lips to signal for quiet. Jonghyun nodded his understanding and leaned against the door to wait. Key continued pacing, ranting at the communicator and waving his hands angrily about.

“No, I do _not_ want to speak with the Sirian regional department, I want to speak with your manager, yes, _your_ manager, no not the Sirian one, _yours_! Listen to me for once, you useless piece of machinery- agh! No! Stop! Fucking opera!”

He came to a stop and made a strangling motion with his hands. Jonghyun coughed inquiringly.

“They put me on hold!” Key said, continuing his attempts to asphyxiate the air. “Again! This is the _sixth time they put me on hold_! I’m going to kill them all if I have to hear the strains of Betelgeusian opera one more fucking time. They don’t even have any taste in _hold music_ -”

“Um,” said Jonghyun, as calmly as he could. “Who are you on hold with?”

“The First United Intergalactic Bank, that’s who,” Key said, scrunching his face up into a disgusted expression. “I hate law-abiding banks. I’m so glad mine just does whatever I want it to. These bastards won’t even let me speak to the people I want to speak with without sending me through endless automated _menus_ -”

Jonghyun tried to stifle an amused grin. From the death glare Key was sending him, he suspected he wasn’t quite succeeding.

“You know,” said Jonghyun. “You don’t _have_ to do the thing with the bank-”

“Yes, I do, and you know it,” Key snapped. “What do you want, anyway? I thought I told you lot I wasn’t to be disturbed while I deal with this fuckery.”

“I had a little incident with two _SHINee_ soldiers earlier,” said Jonghyun placatingly, holding up his hands. “I thought you’d want to know, especially since I had to call Taemin for help and he exploded half the street so I could escape.”

“You _what_?” Key lifted a finger to signal for quiet. “Wait- never mind, I think I’m off hold again- _that_ was quick- I’ll speak with _you_ later. Ah, hello! Yes, ma’am, I was attempting to contact the office of…”

Jonghyun grinned and stretched his arms out, preparing to wait until Key was done to finish explaining.

Of course, that might yet be awhile.

~~~

Jinki found a message waiting for him at his desk one morning later that week, blinking with an insistent blue light.

Jinki eyed the thing, nervousness spiking. The blue meant it came from the higher-ups at Navy Command, and _that_ meant the message was nothing good. His mind spidered away for a moment, envisioning all the horrible things a message from Command might mean. Was there a delay in the back-up fleet? Was Command going to bitch at him about the cost of the repairs again? Were they going to demote him over his inability to catch Key?

_Don’t be ridiculous_ , he told himself sternly. _Better officers than you have lost to that pirate before now, and their careers are doing just fine_.

He reached out and pressed the touchpad next to the light, keying in the code to let the message play. At least he could reassure them that the security key was perfectly safe, even if he _had_ taken rather unorthodox measures to keep it so.

A moment later, the holographic face of a Navy admiral sprung into view.

“Captain Lee,” she said, her feathered face implacably stern. Jinki fought the instinctive urge to salute; this _was_ only a holograph. “Our analysts have examined the latest systems reports you sent us for review. You will be interested to know that there are traces of intrusive search programs within your computer mainframe.”

Jinki blinked as the admiral paused. Intrusive search programs? But that meant…

“Someone, and we suspect a hacker under Key’s payroll, has found their way into your systems. You would be well advised to double the guard on your ship and security key, and to advise your own systems crew to investigate this incident. Admiral out.”

Jinki’s brow creased into a frown as her holograph flickered out of existence. A hacker was tracking their systems? That was…not good.

At the same time, this presented a very useful way to end this awful waiting game, if he played his cards right. At the rate their search was going, it was going to take them forever and a day to find the pirates. Wouldn’t it be so much nicer if he could make the pirates come to _him_?

Jinki nodded to himself, coming to a swift decision. Then he left his office and headed out into the ship main.

It didn’t take him long to dodge his crew and find the more deserted hallways of his ship. Most of it was dimly lit in order to conserve energy, but Jinki could find his way around the _SHINee_ blindfolded and tied to an ancient pogo stick. He took shortcuts, rode through service lifts and headed purposefully through restricted sections in order to arrive as quickly as possible at his destination.

He eventually came to the agricultural section, empty due to the crew that maintained it being off-duty this cycle. Here, hydroponic vats produced extra foodstuffs that the _SHINee_ might need if its warp drives were to fail while in deep space and which could otherwise be used for a variety of purposes, including supplementing the ship’s oxygen supply.

Jinki ignored the greenery and the hum of the large machines. He made his way instead to a complicated computerized section of wall, on which deeply complex readouts blinked and chirped and scrolled.

He ignored _that_ as well and instead started keying in a careful series of sequences into various parts of the wall-size panel, bypassing the hydroponics controls and accessing a different system entirely.

Finally, eight minutes later, a section of wall swung open. Jinki turned his attention to that and started punching in a different series of sequences.

It took half an hour before he was able to disarm all the traps and open all the safe components. Only then was he finally able to look inside the wall compartment and reach out and touch the small, palm-size, all-black disc.

It was not the security key, of course. Jinki had long since moved the real key elsewhere. But this disc had another, very potentially useful purpose

Jinki smiled and began keying the safe closed and the traps back on. That ought to do it.

~~~

Minho sprawled on his bed, rolled his collection of star orbs around in his hands and thought about Key.

It had been one thing, he mused, to swear to do his duty and track down the man he loved, knowing that finding him would lead to Key’s imprisonment, trial and likely eventual execution, back when he hadn’t seen the guy in years and still harbored a bitter resentment against him. It was much more difficult to lead search teams and discuss strategy now, when he was terrified every inch of the way that they would actually _succeed_ in finding the pirates and capturing Key.

He clenched his hand around the first star orb, Key’s orb. On the other hand, as much as Minho guiltily wanted Key alive and free, the civilians nearly killed in today’s pipes explosion would probably not agree. Key had committed horrible crimes and morally speaking, deserved to suffer for all of them. Whatever illogical impulses Minho felt about taking Key in his arms and sheltering him from all the galaxy meant nothing next to the fact that people could _die_ because of this little conflict.

But he nonetheless _felt_ those impulses and felt them far too strongly. Even the fact that Key clearly did not need his protection couldn’t quell his desire to keep his lover safe from all harm, embarrassing as that desire was.

A chime at the door startled him from these thoughts. He dropped the star orb, grateful to be distracted from yet another rendition of his inner woes.

“Come in,” he called.

The door slid open to let Taemin inside. Minho blinked at the priest, surprised.

“Hey,” said Taemin brightly. “You wanna play some hoverball?”

~~~

Taemin managed to get Minho talking with only a little prodding, just by asking him innocently about his exploits on his deep-space mission. Taemin listened at first with great interest to tales of strange energy beings and near-death scrapes with vacuum whales. It turned out that Minho was quite a fun conversationalist when he wasn’t moping over relationships long past.

Taemin then half-tuned Minho out as they approached the hoverball courts. His gaze tracked over the walls as they walked down the corridor, scanning them intently and registering every little door, hatch and sealed flap. He’d never been down this way before, but apparently a certain captain’s sense of humor was not to be reckoned with.

That, and the corridor of the hoverball courts really _was_ a logical place to hide something. Even assuming that, say, a pirate crew could somehow disable the _SHINee_ and board it without triggering the autodestruct, no pirate crew would have the time to play _hoverball_ while searching for the security key. Thus placing the key’s safe in this area was incredibly logical.

Taemin concealed a smile. Logical, but ultimately useless.

Taemin had at first assumed the security key to be hidden in the ship’s hydroponics garden. His ever-expanding web of hidden search tracers lurking within the _SHINee_ ’s mainframe had caught a blip there weeks ago: a very complex code used to open a safe so secret Taemin had found no mention of it anywhere in the _SHINee_ ’s confidential schematics.

However, after the same blip had occurred again earlier today, Taemin had done some more investigating. He’d been baffled as to why Jinki would open the secret safe not once, but _twice._ After all, if he’d never opened it in the first place, Taemin would never even have found it.

But of course, Jinki didn’t suspect that anyone had been monitoring the _SHINee_ ’s systems for weeks. So he’d probably opened the safe in the first place for the same reason anyone opened a safe- to take something out of it. And what would he do with that something once he’d removed it from the safe?

Put it somewhere else, of course. There had been a _very_ interesting series of glitches near the hoverball courts when Taemin’s programs had picked up the first blip. He’d assumed at first that said glitches had just been part of the damage inflicted onto the _SHINee_ by the _Garçons_ …but now he wasn’t so sure.

“Tell me more about that story,” Taemin said as he watched Minho punch in the code to open the court doors. “I didn’t know asteroids could _do_ that.”

“I don’t think normal asteroids can,” said Minho, amused. “These ones turned out to actually be _eggs_ , see. Now, two of the weapons officers had this bet about what might happen if one hatched…”  
  
Taemin gave up on concealing the smile and grinned brightly anyway. Give or take a day or two, and he’d be out of here with enough stories to annoy the _Garçons_ ’ crew with for _ages_.

~~~

“You know,” said Jonghyun. “We’re going to have to conduct a jailbreak when we get onboard the _SHINee_.”

Key frowned down at the screen of the tablet in front of him. A response wasn’t really necessary. Key knew as well as Jonghyun did that six of their crew had been taken captive by the sailors already. And if they didn’t make their move soon, more would follow.

Jonghyun sighed and leaned forward to prop his elbows up on the table. “You’re gonna make me lead the jailbreak, aren’t you?”

“You’re good at them,” Key pointed out. He looked up from his tablet anyway. He had a feeling he knew where Jonghyun was going with this. “Why, did you want to do something else?”

Jonghyun squirmed in his seat. “Taemin might need some help,” he said, eyes wide and hopeful.

“Taemin can more than take care of himself,” said Key. He reached out and placed a hand on Jonghyun’s wrist. “Besides, if there’s time, we _will_ go help him. Look, I know you’re worried about-”

“ _Please_ ,” Jonghyun scoffed, snatching his hand away and rolling his eyes. “It’s not that I’m _worried_ about him. I just think that investing in the protection of the security key we’ve been trying to steal with so much effort is _important_ -”

Key bit back his response to this. Jonghyun liked to pretend he didn’t care about anyone or anything except money and adventure, and it was really none of Key’s business to point out that he could see right through that pretense.

“Not losing six members of our crew is also important,” he said instead. “You’re leading the jailbreak, Jonghyun, and I’m not gonna let you talk your way out of it.”

Jonghyun scowled. Key ignored said scowl and went back to examining the _SHINee_ ’s schematics. Taemin’s last update had been very hopeful. By tomorrow, this affair would be all over, and in their favor.

~~~

The very next day dawned bright and clear, not that Taemin could see it from within his quarters onboard the _SHINee_. In truth, he was not really interested in how the day was dawning, though the weather icon on the screen panel next to his mirror was showing every indication of it being a sunny, cloudless day.

Taemin closed his eyes, took a deep breath and collected his thoughts. Now was _not_ the time to be musing on the weather, no matter how tempting a distraction it might be. He’d spent all of yesterday working on cracking the necessary passwords and coding other programs that would prove necessary in the attempt.

He was all set to snatch the security key right out from beneath the _SHINee_ sailors’ noses. Or beaks, or snouts or any other corresponding appendages.

He sucked in an eager little breath and grabbed his special communicator out of his small travelling bag.

It was time to send the signal.

~~~

Jinki made an arrangement to travel over and speak with the manager of _Romeo’s Repair Yard_ early in the morning. He brought Minho along for two reasons. For one, he did not quite trust Minho to be in sole command of the _SHINee_ on this particular day. Jinki did not understand the pirate captain well enough to know what Key might do if he knew Minho were in command and did not want to risk the success of his trap on such an easily avoidable factor.

And if the other reason for his ordering Minho’s presence was because he felt sadistic enough to let his second in command do most of the talking while he sat back and stared intimidatingly at bureaucrats, well, that was his prerogative as captain, wasn’t it?

~~~

“Hey, wanna know something?” said Jonghyun in a loud stage-whisper. “There are roughly two-hundred sailors assigned to a Navy vessel of this size and class.”

“Shut up,” hissed Key, peering intently through a pair of electrobinoculars. “I know that.”

“Wanna know something else?” Jonghyun added, still in that irritating fake whisper. “There are forty-one of us, and seven of us are on that ship, and you only brought twenty of the rest with you. Including us.”

“I thought I told you to be quiet.”

“We’re outnumbered _twenty to two-hundred_ ,” Jonghyun hissed. “The odds fucking suck!”

“Stop whining,” said Key. He nudged Jonghyun with a knee. “You knew all this already before we even got here. Besides, once we lead the jailbreak, there’ll be thir-”

He fell abruptly silent as a squad of guards marched past the pile of spaceship parts he and Jonghyun were hiding behind in _Romeo_ ’s hangar. Once they had gone, Jonghyun spoke up again.

“I’m just complaining to let the stress out, you know that.” He sighed, fidgeted. “Have our minions gotten the distraction ready yet?”

Key’s lips quirked up into an amused smile at the word _minions_. “They’re working on it. Believe me, we’ll know when they- _ah_.”

This _ah_ was something of an underreaction to half the hangar suddenly exploding. Jonghyun bit back a yelp and dived behind Key as pieces of glass and metal flew everywhere.

“That’s it, let’s go,” said Key, scrambling to his feet. The sounds of laserfire picked up from across the giant open space. “That group will hold them off while ours makes it inside. Come _on_!”

Jonghyun visibly swallowed as Key waved over a band of twelve more of their number who’d been hiding separately in the hangar. Key ignored his right hand man’s nervousness and began issuing crisp, mostly unnecessary instructions which his crew quickly followed.

“Come on,” Key said. He grabbed Jonghyun’s elbow. “Let’s go explode some shit.”

Jonghyun, battle stress instantly forgotten, perked up visibly and trotted after his captain with a gleeful smile stretched across his face.

~~~

Minho had less than no idea why he was here. Jinki seemed to have ordered his presence along simply to torment him with unnecessary amounts of paperwork and nonsense. Needless to say, Minho did not appreciate it in the least.

Thus, as they were taking a break from speaking with the repair yard managers, Minho eagerly took the opportunity to go answer a message chiming from his communicator. Maybe if he was still speaking with whoever-it-was once the managers returned, Jinki wouldn’t make him keep doing all the talking.

He blinked in surprise when he fished the communicator from his pocket and found the caller id to be from the branch of the bank he had an account with. He grimaced and dialed the key sequence for a reply, strolling towards a window overlooking the hangar bay where the _SHINee_ rested. It would just be his luck if they’d made a clerical error with his credit score _again._

“Hello?” he said, once the device had connected. “Choi Minho here.”

“Greetings, sir,” said the musical tones of either a very well-programmed automated menu or an extremely bored employee. “As per our policy, we are calling to confirm that you have indeed made a deposit exceeding-”

Minho lost the thread of her words when half the hangar bay went up in flame and smoke. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jinki jump to his feet and stride over to the window. They stared out at the chaos below, noticing a group of eight or so pirates start a shoot-out near the source of the explosion, while another slightly larger group began skulking stealthily towards the _SHINee_ ’s extended landing ramp.

“Sir?” said the voice in his ear. “Sir, are you there?”

“Um,” said Minho. “I’ll call you back later, okay? Thank you very much,” and slid the communicator shut. He turned to Jinki. “Sir, our ship just exploded.”

“No, the hangar exploded,” Jinki corrected, oddly calm. “The _SHINee_ should be fine. I ordered her shields to remain extended today; she should be spared the worst of the damage.”

“You ordered the _shields_ …” Minho’s voice trailed off. His eyes widened. “You were expecting this!”

“Of course,” said Jinki comfortably, a trace of smugness in his tone. “Command contacted me to inform me that we had a number of search tracers in our computer systems. I opened the key safe last night knowing that whoever was hacking us would pick up on it, break the code and likely signal an attack for today.”

“A trap,” said Minho, immediately understanding. “With the security key as the bait- sir, isn’t that dangerous?”

“It would be, if I hadn’t taken extra precautions with the key,” said Jinki. “I also put everyone on the ship on high alert this morning. Those pirates are going to run into _far_ more than they can handle.”

Minho reflected for a moment on what it meant that Jinki hadn’t _told_ him about this until just now, then stuffed his embarrassed resentment away. If his captain didn’t trust him because of his involvement with Key, well, Minho would just have to prove himself worthy of the Navy he served.

He glanced out the window, eyes tracking the small shapes of the pirates making their steady way towards the ship’s landing ramp, which had still, oddly, not retracted.

“Sir, I’m not so sure about that,” Minho said. He pointed out the window. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s Key himself with them. If he’s on scene…”

He didn’t have to finish his sentence. Events in a groundside firefight moved quickly and unpredictably. If Key had been directing the battle from afar, there wouldn’t be much he could about anything that went down. But if he were actually _here_ …

There was no one better at exploiting unpredictable events than the Almighty Key.

Jinki cursed and spun on his heel. “Come on, Commander,” he said brusquely. “We need to get down there.”

~~~

Taemin checked the computer one last time to ensure that his overrides would remain in place, including the one that ensured the landing ramp remained extended until the pirates came aboard. He then stepped back and began stripping out of his priestly outfit.

It had been nice to be a priest, he reflected wistfully. He’d like to do it again someday, provided that the Order of Juliette was right about there being no hell, else he’d wind up there for sure for impersonating a religious figure once already. But his priestly disguise was now unnecessary, and it was time to become something else.

He set the heavy necklaces aside and bent, naked, to retrieve a red uniform from his bag. The uniform was similar to some of the ones worn by the sailors onboard the _SHINee_ and would thus make most people turn a blind eye to him as he went about his business. It would allow him to blend in as the priest disguise had not.

And, well, it was nice to be in uniform again, Taemin mused as he slid the trousers on and did up his fly. True, a Navy uniform wasn’t the same thing as a pirate uniform, but it was close enough.

He reached for his shirt, humming. The waiting game was over; it was now time to do what he did best.

~~~

They made it into the ship with relatively little difficulty. Taemin had programmed the ship in a number of ways to ease their arrival; squads of sailors found themselves deterred by unexpected blast doors slamming shut, water spraying from burst pipes, alarms blaring in places within the ship that the pirates had no intention of going and other things of that nature. Thus Jonghyun and Key’s group managed to sneak and shoot their way aboard without incurring more than a few minor laser burns on some of their less-quick-at-ducking comrades.

They had three goals to achieve. The first and foremost was to break their six captured crewmembers out of the _SHINee_ ’s brig. The second was to find Taemin if the jailbreak went quickly enough and offer him any assistance he needed in obtaining the security key and making his way out of the ship again. Taemin probably didn’t _need_ any assistance, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

As for the third objective...well. Jonghyun was of the opinion that it wasn’t necessary in the first place, and yet of _course_ Key insisted on doing it and doing it alone. It was pointless to argue with him on the matter. Jonghyun just hoped Key didn’t go and get himself killed because of his ridiculous sentimentality.

Thus when they came to a critical intersection within the ship, Jonghyun and ten of their number headed towards the ship’s brig while Key peeled off from the group and headed out alone.

~~~

Jinki ran like hell into the hangar, making for the base of the landing ramp. Unfortunately, as they came closer, the ramp began to slowly ascend on its own, preventing them from entering.

Both of them skidded to a stop, Minho cursing as he did so. Jinki glowered at the offending ramp. Whoever had taken control of _his ship_ was going to pay.

“Sir!” panted a crew member, jogging up to them. “Our reports from inside tell us that some hacker has control of the ship. They are experiencing a large number of, er, technical difficulties.”

Jinki’s jaw tensed. “Anything else I should know?”

“Yes, sir,” said the crew member, the set of his eyebrows nervous. “There are reports of the priest we took aboard taking out a squad of guards while dressed in a Navy uniform.”

It didn’t take long for Jinki to process what this meant: Taemin was a spy in league with the pirates. Why else he be dressed as such, and attacking the _SHINee_ ’s crew?

Worse yet, scraps of conversation and half-remembered pieces of information began to suddenly make sense in light of this knowledge. Taemin’s vague story about being a dancer before someone had asked him to be a priest, for example, made a horrible kind of sense when one realized that the dangerous hacker codenamed Dancer had supposedly recently been recruited by Key.

“Fuck!” said Jinki loudly, ignoring decorum in his sudden anger. “I should have known! It was so _obvious_!”

“Everything is obvious in hindsight, sir,” said Minho, trying for reassuring. “Come on, let’s go find a secondary entrance.”

Jinki took a deep breath, trying to refocus. It was, however, difficult. The knowledge that _Taemin_ was the hacker working for Key and had been all along was deeply alarming. All the _SHINee_ ’s defenses and, worse, Jinki’s own decisions regarding the security key, had been made under the assumption that they would be defending the _SHINee_ from an outside attack under a time crunch, not from an inside saboteur who’d had weeks to set up a plan of action.

“You take the entrance near the shuttle bay,” Jinki said finally, coming to the inescapable conclusion about what he had to do. “I’ll go around the front. There are some things I need to take care of.”

Minho, bless him, didn’t ask questions. He merely saluted, spun on his heel and dashed off. Jinki himself gestured at the remaining crewmember.

“Follow me. We’re going to the library.”

~~~

Taemin’s fingers flew over the hydroponics control panel. He didn’t have time to go through the whole thirty-minute start-up sequence, which was the reason why he’d waited so long to summon the rest of Key’s crew. He’d needed time to come up with a way to hack the passwords and make opening the safe _much_ quicker.

It was still going to take him seventeen minutes to get the fucking thing open, however. That was better than thirty, but not really by that much.

_Focus_ , he thought, and put all his effort into the task. He had not spent the past few weeks on the _SHINee_ searching desperately for the location of the security key only to fail at acquiring it now.

~~~

Minho’s first step was to head for his quarters. This was not a random decision; according to several soldiers he’d passed on the way, Key had been seen off and on heading in this direction, followed by a trail of stunned bodies.

Minho had no idea what Key could want with his meager few possessions. The only things of value that he owned were the star orbs, and if Key had wanted those, he could have taken at least the first two when he’d deserted several years ago. But Key clearly had _some_ purpose in mind, and Minho knew he had to counteract it.

It was the only way to prove his commitment to the service. Conveniently, if _he_ were the one to encounter Key, he could also at least keep from killing him. He was not so sure any other soldier would refrain from using deadly force in a firefight with the number one most wanted pirate in the galaxy.

He was not, however, reckless enough to face Key in this situation alone. Two soldiers trailed him as they made haste towards Minho’s quarters. Hopefully this would be quick; they would wait within, ambush Key as he came through the door and take him into custody.

Once they reached the outside of his quarters, Minho held up a hand and gestured for the two soldiers to take up position on the other side of the door. Minho himself carefully pressed his palm to the control panel. He drew his laser weapon as the doors hissed open, the two soldiers following suit.

They were not fast enough. A rapid series of shots from inside the room took out Minho’s two crew members and sent Minho’s own weapon spinning from his hand to crash against the wall behind him.

“Hands on your head,” an all-too familiar voice called from within. “Come in _slowly_.”

Minho growled quietly. Still, he did as ordered. Hands on his head, he entered the room, the doors sliding shut behind him.

Key was sitting on the bed within, his laser weapon pointed straight at Minho with an unfaltering aim.

“Good,” Key purred. The gun shifted to keep Minho within its sights. “Now kneel for me, lover.”

“You know,” said Minho as he sank to his knees. “This is really very unnecessary. You could have taken two of those orbs with you when you left if you’d wanted them that badly.”

Key blinked at him, his hold on the weapon unwavering. “What?”

“The _orbs_ ,” said Minho. “That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it? To steal them?”

“Of course not,” Key said, giving an offended huff of breath. “I left them for _you_ to keep; I knew it would mean a lot to you to have something special of mine after I’d gone. You’re sentimental like that.”

Minho bit back a smile, something inside him relaxing at these words.

“Okay then,” he said cautiously. “Why are you in my quarters if it’s not to steal my star orbs?”

Key grinned at him. It would have been a charming grin, had he not had a gun aimed steadily at Minho’s torso.

“I wanted to talk to you again,” he said easily, slipping off the bed to stand upright. Minho tensed. “Is that really so difficult to believe?”

“Considering the fact that you look like you’re about to fucking _shoot_ me, maybe.”

Key shrugged, coming closer. “The gun’s just a precaution. You could probably kick my ass in hand-to-hand combat, after all. I need _something_ on my side.”

Minho craned his head back to look up at Key’s face rather than his crotch. Not that Minho _minded_ looking at his crotch, ordinarily, but at the moment he needed to see Key’s expression more than the soft, distracting bulge of his cock against his uniform trousers.

“All right,” said Minho. “Cool. You’re not going to shoot me. What _are_ you going to do?”

Key smirked. “Well, since I have you here at my mercy, kneeling at my feet…there are a lot of things I can think of doing to you, and I bet you’d love them _all_.”

Minho’s treacherous cock twitched at these words. He heaved an exasperated sigh and did not permit himself to become distracted by these words of truth.

“ _Kibum_ ,” he said, and had the satisfaction of seeing the smug look on Key’s face falter at that name. “Be serious.”

“I _am_ being serious,” Key objected. He sighed in turn and flicked a long strand of hair off his face. “Fine. I wanted to give you a gift.”

“A…gift?”

“You heard me.” Key beamed at him and dipped his free hand into a pocket, coming up with a small data chip. “I’m going to leave this with you.”

“And what is that?”

“Confirmation of a very large pending physical deposit into your personal bank account,” Key said blithely.

Minho choked. “Confirmation of- deposit- _what_? How the hell did you- do you have my _bank records_?”

“Never mind that,” Key said quickly. He spun the chip around his fingers before taking a step closer and bending down to slip the chip into Minho’s breast pocket. “Here, love. Seventy-six star orbs should be in your account by the end of the week.”

“ _Seventy-six_ -” Minho gaped at him. The four orbs Minho possessed could set him up for a lifetime if he’d been inclined to sell them. With _seventy-six_ of them…

“What?” Key said, a trace of nervousness flickering over his features. “Do you not want them? I thought they’d be nice to have, since you know, they were kind of an obsession of ours when we were young, but if you don’t want them you can sell them or something-”

“ _Kibum_ ,” said Minho slowly, incredulously. “I could buy a fucking _solar system_ with that many star orbs!”

“Oh,” said Key. He bit his lip. “Did you want a solar system instead? Give me a couple of weeks, and I can probably arrange something-”

“No, I don’t want a solar system!” Minho took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. “I just can’t figure out why on earth you have that many star orbs in the first place, or why you’re giving them to me, or-”

“They’re an apology,” said Key, cutting him off. “After I realized that you probably hated me for leaving- yes, yes, yes,” he added irritably when Minho indignantly opened his mouth to speak. “I know _now_ that you still love me, but I spent several years thinking that I’d fucked all that up, all right? So I started collecting star orbs for you as an apology gift.”

Minho stared at him, too full of conflicting emotion to form coherent words. He wondered if he wanted to know exactly _how_ Key had managed to afford all the star orbs. He marveled at the depth of feeling Key must have retained for him in order to do something so dramatic in scale as an apology. He felt a deep surge of affection at how typically ridiculous the gift was. Just who gave their ex-boyfriend a major fortune in rare artifacts just to say _I’m sorry_ , anyway?

“Um,” said Key, his expression descending into nervousness again. “Look, I just thought you’d like them, all right? And if you don’t, you can always sell them- and accepting them doesn’t mean you need to forgive me for anything, because I understand that shit went down between us and if you really do want a solar system or something instea-”

“Shut up,” said Minho. To his surprise, Key did. “ _Listen_ to me, you ridiculous idiot. If I weren’t kneeling on the floor with a gun pointed at my head, I’d fucking kiss you into next week right now. You don’t need to _buy_ my forgiveness with expensive presents! I’m not gonna pretend I’m not still pissed at you for how you left me, and I’m not gonna pretend there aren’t problems between us now, what with you being a criminal and all. But you have my forgiveness anyway, not because you’re a rich as hell pirate, but because I _love_ you, you fucking bastar-”

His words were cut off by Key kneeling down in front of him and dragging him into a fierce, grateful kiss. Minho didn’t dare take his hands off his head; he could feel the muzzle of the gun pressing into his hair even as Key straddled his thighs and curled an arm around his neck. But even still at gunpoint he kissed Key back, delighting in the crush of mouth to mouth.

“I had another reason for wanting to apologize,” Key said breathlessly, pulling back a little. “I wanted to know if you’d be okay with keeping in contact after this and maybe meeting occasionally?”

“Of _course_ I’m okay with that,” Minho said indignantly. “That’s all I wanted in the _first_ place, you asshole.”

Key’s mouth curved up into a half-smirk, half shy grin. “It’ll be a lot of work, you know,” he warned, fingers rubbing teasingly across the fine hairs at the back of Minho’s neck. “We’ll have to arrange it so I don’t get caught by the authorities, and _you_ don’t get caught contacting me.”

“I don’t care,” said Minho. He leaned forward, heedless of the way Key kept the gun pressed to the back of his head as he did so. “Didn’t I tell you I loved you?”

Key’s eyes softened. “Yeah,” he said. “I guess you did.”

Their lips met again in another kiss, this time softer, more tender, savoring the feeling of being able to taste each other like this once more. Key was warm on top of Minho’s thighs and he smelled like smoke and spices, an intoxicating, heady scent. Minho smiled into the kiss, unbearably happy at the prospect that it would not be their last.

“I love you too, sweetheart,” Key whispered against Minho’s lips.

Then he pulled the trigger.

~~~

Taemin padded purposefully down the corridors of the ship, humming to himself. A little disc was tucked securely against an inside pocket of his red uniform, pressing against him as he walked. One last stop and he’d be out of here for good.

He did have some regrets about this. He’d never expected to like the _SHINee_ ’s captain nearly as much as he’d wound up doing. Jinki was clever and sweet and fun and interesting and really, it was such a _waste_ that he’d chosen to be a boring captain on a boring military vessel. Taemin was half-tempted to kidnap him and bring him along to the _Garçons_ , just to see the expression on his face.

But Key would never in a million light-years approve of that, so Taemin sighed, sadly suppressed all thoughts of kidnapping to mere fantasies and continued on his way.

~~~

Jonghyun frowned at the timepiece blinking on his wrist. The jailbreak had gone incredibly smoothly, save for one foolish kid getting her arm blown off for not dodging an explosion quickly enough. Fortunately, her species regrew limbs fairly quickly. She’d be all right.

Jonghyun was not so sure about Taemin or Key being all right. They were rapidly running out of time. The _Garçons_ would have left its hiding place in its sketchy hangar by now and would be on its way here. Jonghyun’s group and their six rescued comrades didn’t have time to go find their captain or their recently hired hacker. They had to get the hell out of here _now_ and prepare the way for their escape.

But Jonghyun could not in good consciousness just _leave_ Key and Taemin here. So he grimaced and directed his group to make it to the appropriate shuttle bay and start getting ready to fly out.

“What about you?” said one of his crew, raising a blue eyebrow at him. “You’re not coming with?”

“Nah,” said Jonghyun easily. “You guys can go through a shuttle’s start-up procedures without me. I’m gonna go find that late as fuck spy of ours. Go on, you lot, scram.”

He was met with several pairs of rolled eyes, but the sixteen of them turned and went off anyway. Jonghyun himself squared his shoulders and set off to find either Taemin or Key, whomever he happened to encounter first.

~~~

Key rose gracefully to his feet and prodded Minho’s limp form with the toe of a boot. Being shot point-blank on stun setting usually didn’t harm one too badly- the worst of the common side effects was some wooziness upon regaining consciousness. All the same, it was a relief to see Minho breathing normally, as if he were merely asleep.

Key regretted that they could not have parted more amicably, but it was best for no one to suspect that the Almighty Key had a soft spot for a certain Navy commander. Leaving Minho unconscious on his floor would lead people to the proper incorrect assumptions about their meeting.

Key was also not entirely certain that Minho would even have _let_ him go without an attempt to arrest him. It was therefore better to be safe than sorry.

He did not waste any more time here. Key holstered his weapon and strode to the door, intent on finding Jonghyun and aiding him with the jailbreak and escape. It wouldn’t be long before the soldiers figured out how to overcome the overrides Taemin had programmed into the ship’s systems, and they would all need to be out of here by then. Plus, the _Garçons_ was likely already on its way.

Even despite the tight time table, Key couldn’t stop smiling as he broke into a quick run down the corridors of the _SHINee_. Minho had accepted his apology and, better yet, agreed to meet him again and keep in contact! Even if they didn’t manage to acquire the security key, this half of the operation would make the entire ordeal worth it.

Key pressed a hand to his mouth to keep from breaking out into very embarrassing delighted laughter. He’d chosen the _SHINee_ as the vessel he wanted to steal a security key from mostly because it would give him a chance to see Minho again and offer his apology in person. It was beyond wonderful that this scheme had worked.

And now it was time to ensure that the other half of said scheme- the half regarding stealing the security key- also worked as planned.

~~~

Jinki panted for breath as he sprinted down the hall. He’d done what he could to ensure the safety of the security key; it was now time to get the hell off this ship before someone found him.

As he turned the corridor, his ears caught a snippet of a hummed familiar song. It was one of the more awful remixes that had been played at least eight times at the _Ring Ding Dong_ and which Taemin had professed his more than baffling love for.

Jinki clutched the wall and skidded to a stop, nearly falling over in the process. He silently drew his gun and peered around the corner.

Taemin, dressed in a red military uniform, was strolling rapidly down the corridor, humming to himself. A wide smile crossed his face, his eyes sparkling. Jinki swallowed back a weird mix of betrayed anger and vaguely lustful affection. He carefully raised his weapon and aimed it steadily down the hall.

The moment before Jinki’s finger squeezed the trigger, Taemin turned his head slightly and caught sight of him. His eyes widened as he instinctively dropped and rolled away.

Jinki cursed when his first shot splashed into the wall. He adjusted his aim and fired again and again. Taemin nimbly continued to evade the laser beams even as he fumbled out a weapon of his own and scrambled behind a protrusion of wall for shelter.

“I should have known it was you,” Jinki called down the hall as they exchanged fire. “It was so fucking _clear_ that you-”

“Are you insulting my acting skills?” Taemin demanded. One of his shots nearly clipped Jinki in the ear, forcing him to duck back around the corner for a moment, breathing hard. “I’ll have you know that I was in fact a very excellent spy-”

“Oh, sure,” said Jinki. He flicked the setting on his gun from _low stun_ to _high stun_ and fired it at Taemin again. “ _Dancer_.”

“You know my codename!” Taemin exclaimed. Jinki could practically _hear_ the delighted grin that had to be crossing his face at these words. “You know, you’re a lot smarter than I thought you’d be when I accepted this assignment.”

“Gee, thanks,” Jinki said sourly. He grinned, however, when Taemin gave an undignified yelp at part of the wall protrusion sparking dangerously above him from another missed shot. “Listen to me, you bastard, when I get my hands on you-”

“Yeah?” said Taemin and goddamnit, his voice was practically a _purr_. “What are you going to do to me, Captain? Is it going to involve handcuffs and being fucked really hard? Because I think I’d enjoy that a lot-”

Jinki let out a hiss of mixed fury and frustrated lust. He spun around into the open and fired as rapidly as he could, sending sparks flying everywhere as the electronics reacted to lasers cascading into them. Taemin yelled loudly with shock when one of Jinki’s succession of shots finally connected, exploding the gun in his hand.

“Surrender,” Jinki ordered, breathing hard. “Put your hands on your head and get on your knees-”

“Not a chance in _hell_ ,” said Taemin as he charged forward.

Jinki immediately saw what the file on Dancer had meant by _expert at several forms of martial arts_. Taemin, unbelievably, managed to dodge around the shots fired from Jinki’s weapon and come within reach of him in barely any time at all. A quick kick knocked the gun from Jinki’s hand, with a _crack_ and a heavy jolt of pain that probably meant several of Jinki’s fingers had been broken. Jinki made a high-pitched noise of _ow shit fuck_ and blocked Taemin’s next attempt to punch him in the face.

Fights at range didn’t tend to last long; it was only seconds before Jinki managed to get a grip on Taemin and toss him to the floor by upsetting his balance. Taemin’s incredibly fast reflexes, however, meant that he’d hooked a foot around Jinki’s ankle and sent him tumbling to the hard, cold metal deck as well.

They rolled around on the floor, attempting to get enough leverage on the other to hold him still and knock him out. Jinki was physically stronger than Taemin, but Taemin was faster and more skilled at this kind of thing than Jinki. It was therefore not long before Taemin managed to pin Jinki beneath him and bend his thumb in a lock that ordinarily would have had Jinki limp and begging for mercy in only seconds.

However, his thumb was practically numb from being fractured by Taemin’s earlier kick. The increase in pain therefore felt only incremental compared to the agony it was already in, which itself was numbed by the adrenaline flooding through Jinki’s system. Jinki thus ignored the lock and made a desperate move that, had he not been flush with agonized adrenaline and angry arousal, he never would have been foolish enough to make.

He tightened his abs and craned his head up to catch Taemin’s lips in a fierce and furious kiss. Taemin forgot immediately all about holding the lock on Jinki’s thumb and kissed him back. His mouth was teasingly insistent against Jinki’s own, teeth nipping wickedly at Jinki’s lower lip. Jinki made a strangled sound of desire at the sensation, cock hardening.

Taemin, infuriatingly, _giggled_ at this. Jinki snarled with all the force of just how fucking _pissed-off_ he was and slung an arm around Taemin’s chest to drag him close. One of Taemin’s legs insinuated himself between Jinki’s thighs, pressing up against Jinki’s crotch. His slender body felt hot and all too tempting crushed so close against Jinki’s own.

They kissed feverishly, hands roaming each other’s bodies with a rough, insatiable desire. Jinki knew, logically speaking, that this was a _terrible_ idea. Hadn’t he always been the type to complain about how annoying it was when the hero took the most _inopportune_ time to snog their love interest during action holofilms? And yet he couldn’t stop touching Taemin, couldn’t stop kissing him, couldn’t stop himself from rubbing up against him with breathless, frantic _need_.

“Captain-” Taemin gasped at some point, voice low and hoarse. Jinki growled and yanked him into another kiss, stroking his tongue roughly into Taemin’s mouth as his unbroken fingers dug tightly enough into the sharp angles of Taemin’s hips to leave bruises.

Taemin whimpered eagerly into the kiss, fingers fisting into Jinki’s hair and demolishing his careful hairstyle. Jinki lost himself in the heat of the moment, drowning in the skilled way Taemin ground their hips together, the salty, sweaty taste of Taemin’s skin as he sucked a mark into the side of Taemin’s neck, the little mewling cry Taemin gave when Jinki’s teeth scraped unmercifully against said mark.

He was so lost in the surging tide of desire that when Taemin stretched up against him, shoulder bumping Jinki’s chin, Jinki could think of nothing but how he could feel the bulge of Taemin’s hard cock pressing against his torso. It was only when he tilted his head back to see Taemin’s fingers closing over the gun he’d kicked out of Jinki’s hand earlier that the reality of the situation crashed back into him.

And even then, his lust-dulled senses could only react quickly enough to bring his thigh up in a reflexive attempt to inflict damage before Taemin had aimed the gun at him and _fired_.

~~~

Jonghyun ran into Key on the way back from a mostly successful mission to the brig. This ‘running into’ was unfortunately literal; they both turned a corner at the same time and rebounded painfully off each other whilst scrambling for their weapons.

“Oh, it’s you!” Jonghyun exclaimed once his brain processed the fact that this was _Key_ and not an enemy sailor. “You should be more careful, boss; I nearly shot you!”

Key scowled at him. This scowl didn’t quite reach his eyes, which were all but sparkling with joy. From that, Jonghyun presumed that Key’s attempt to finish reconciling with his Navy boyfriend had been successful.

“Why are you alone?” Key demanded, re-holstering his weapon. “Did you get the others out of the brig?”

“Yeah, and I sent them on their way out of here,” Jonghyun said. “There are like sixteen of them together; they should be fine.”

Key favored him with a deeply stern look. “And you aren’t with them _why_? We’re running out of time! I thought I told you not to go chasing after Taemin; the kid can _more_ than handle himself.”

“In more ways than one,” said Jonghyun with a rather obscene leer. He grinned when Key choked, nose scrunching up. “Besides, what makes you think I was coming after him? Maybe I was going to make sure _you_ were okay.”  
  
Key scoffed. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I dunno, maybe because I don’t trust that Navy sugar boy of yours not to fuck you up?” said Jonghyun, raising a pointed eyebrow at his captain. “You know full well he’d shoot you in a heartbeat if he ever got the chance.”

“Stun me, maybe,” said Key, entirely too carelessly. He winked. “Besides, I happen to like it when he _fucks_ me up, if you know what I mean…”

It was Jonghyun’s turn to choke and make a disgusted face. “I do _not_ need to hear the sordid details about what some Navy commander likes to do with his dick.”

“No, you like Navy dick of a slightly higher rank,” said Key. He snickered when Jonghyun spluttered helplessly at this. “Come on, man, let’s get out of here.”

Jonghyun rolled his eyes and followed Key down the hall.

~~~

Taemin couldn’t help glancing at the digital timepieces on the walls as he made haste towards the shuttle bay. They were on a very tight time schedule now; the idea was to make it to the bay, steal a shuttle and fly out of the orbiting hangar. Once into space, they’d dodge the other armed shuttles that the _SHINee_ would likely send after them and dock with the _Garçons_. Then, safely aboard, they’d undock the shuttle and warp out, leaving this moon and their Navy opposition behind.

First, though, he had to _get_ to the shuttlebay. And it was difficult because his balls still fucking _hurt_ where Jinki had slammed his thigh into them. Bastard. How the hell had his thighs gotten so strong, anyway?

Taemin was panting hard when he finally arrived and not just from how hard he’d had to run to make it here or the lingering pain in his groin. That little make-out session with Jinki had been fucking _intense_. If Taemin had had more time to spare, he’d definitely have stuck around and let things develop. The idea of the captain fucking him hard against the metal deck was a hell of a turn-on. Taemin’s heart beat quickly at the memory of how fucking sexy Jinki’s eyes had been, all dark and furious and full of intent lust.

A voice calling his name from the base of a shuttle landing ramp caught his attention and broke him out of reverie. All the sailors in and near the bay had already been stunned and disposed of, fortunately, or Taemin might well have been shot while fantasizing about how amazing a kisser Jinki was when he was immensely pissed off.

“ _Taemin!_ Hurry _up_ , goddamnit!”

“I’m _coming_ ,” Taemin yelled back. He increased the speed of his run, wincing a little as he loped towards the shuttle. “Don’t be so fucking impatient, Captain!”

Key glowered at him. “I am the _epitome_ of patience- is that a _hickey_ on your neck? When the fuck did you have time to make out with someone when you were _supposed_ to be stealing the key-”

“Oh, please,” said Taemin, breathing a little raggedly as he gingerly jogged up the landing ramp and brushed past Key into the shuttle main. “Like _you_ didn’t take the opportunity for a little mouth-to-mouth with Commander Choi-”

“Oh, shut up,” said Key exasperatedly. He fished a communicator from his pocket and flipped it open. “Oy, cockpit! All aboard, let’s get the hell out of here!”

“Aye, sir!” a tinny voice resounded from the device. Key grinned and flipped it shut again.

“Come on,” said Key, taking Taemin’s elbow. “Let’s go direct our escape.”

“It should be easy,” said Taemin as the landing ramp began to retract behind them. “I glitched the fuck out of most of the other shuttlecraft. I don’t think we’ll have all that much pursuit, Captain.”

Key beamed. “Excellent.”

~~~

Their escape was indeed incredibly easy. Taemin’s sabotage of the other shuttles meant that the _SHINee_ couldn’t scramble any of them to send after the hijacked one. In barely any time at all, they had docked with the _Garçons_ and made the jump to warp.

Jonghyun left most of the crew celebrating the return of their six captured comrades (well, four of the six, since two had been shot pretty badly on the way out and were currently in the medbay) and followed Key and Taemin into a meeting room. Jonghyun leaned against a wall and tried not to glare at the bite-mark on Taemin’s neck.

“The security key,” said Key as soon as the doors closed behind them. “Did you get it?”

Taemin hummed mysteriously. “Well. It’s kind of a long story…”

Key gave him a _look_. “I don’t really care how long the story is, kid.”

Taemin waved his hands around. “It’s important, though! See, at first when I was running searches of the _SHINee_ ’s mainframe, I couldn’t find any indication of the key at _all_. Whoever designed that ship’s systems was _good_ at their job, let me tell you.”

“ _Taemin_ ,” said Key, voice sharp. He held out a hand, eyes narrowed. “Do you have it or not?”

Taemin huffed out an aggrieved sigh and pulled a disc from a pocket. He set it on Key’s palm with a roll of his eyes.

“There you go,” he said. “Ta daaa!”  
  
“Congratulations, Taemin,” Jonghyun said while Key cooed fondly at the disc as if it were a long-lost child. “You did it!”

“Well, kind of,” said Taemin. Then he grinned. “Hey, Jonghyun, guess what? I left a neat little surprise for them in the key safe that I think you’ll really appreciate.”

“Oh?” said Jonghyun interestedly. “What kind of surprise?”

Before Taemin could reply, Key frowned and looked up.

“Never mind that,” he said. “What did you mean by you _kind of_ did it? Is this the key or not?”

“Ah,” said Taemin. “See, here’s the thing…”

~~~

Minho woke to a horrible sensation of wooziness which started in his head and seeped like molten cold throughout every bone and fiber of his body.

“Ow,” he said when his jaw felt sufficiently normal enough to attempt speech. “What’s going on?”

The medical officer currently checking his pulse blinked at him. “If you feel up to walking, sir, the captain would like to see you in the hydroponics garden as soon as possible.”

Minho twitched the muscles in his legs and supposed that walking was vaguely possible. He waved a hand in the air.

“Help me up?”

A short ten minutes later, he’d managed to stagger all the way to the agricultural section, though he’d had to lean for support on said medical officer most of the way. Once he set foot in the hydroponics area, however, he felt stable enough to stand on his own, and so the officer saluted and left him alone with his captain.

Said captain was feverishly typing key sequences into the hydroponics systems computer. Minho stared at him, then went and collapsed on a bench near him.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Yes,” said Jinki distractedly. He looked pale and none-too-steady on his own feet, as if he too had just recovered from being stunned. “The pirates have escaped, Commander.”

A sinking sensation enveloped Minho’s gut. “Escaped, sir?”

“Yes,” said Jinki. “They stole a shuttle, sabotaged the rest of the craft somehow and made their way to the _Garçons_ , which then warped out to who knows where.”

Minho shifted guiltily on the bench. “I’m sorry, sir. I did try to stop Key-”

“Yes, yes, I know,” said Jinki. His fingers flew ever faster over the panel. “Don't beat yourself up about it, Commander. I was also stunned during the attack. The point is- ah, there we go!”

Minho drew in a sharp breath as the last section of what he assumed must be the security key’s safe as it swung open. He leaned forward and peered intently into the safe, looking for any sign of the security key. There was, however, nothing but unpromising darkness within.

“Sir, they’ve got the key!”

“Hmm,” said Jinki, staring thoughtfully into the empty safe with considerable less alarm than Minho felt he ought to be expressing. “Yes, so they have.”

“Sir-!”

“Quiet, Commander,” said Jinki. He cautiously put an arm into the safe and felt around. “Let me see…ow!”

He snatched his arm back, instinctively sucking on the small wound on his finger where a needle had pierced it. Minho shot to his feet, instantly on guard.

This proved to be unnecessary; a foot-high shimmering hologram of Taemin sparkled into view only a second later.

“Sorry about that,” said the hologram. “I just had to do a quick DNA sample to make sure it was really you, Captain.”

“Fucker,” muttered Jinki.

“I bet by now you know that I’m a really cool pirate spy,” the hologram of Taemin continued. “You also know that I’ve outsmarted you and broken into your super secret safe and stolen your security key. I’d apologize, but you would know that I don’t mean it.”

One of Jinki’s eyes twitched. Minho bit back a very inappropriate grin.

“Anyway,” the hologram said. “The thing is, I really did like hanging out with you, Captain. You’re tons of fun. So if you ever wanna meet again, there’s a bed with two _very_ interested pirates waiting for you to come play, if you know what I mean.”

The hologram’s face contorted into a ridiculously obscene wink before shimmering out of existence. Its playback device destroyed itself in a mini-explosion not a second later.

Jinki’s face twitched harder in an even weirder fashion. Minho swallowed back an even more inappropriate laugh and said:  
  
“Banging two pirates at once, Captain? Kinky.”

Jinki glared at him. Minho winced.

“Sorry, sir, it’s the aftereffects of being stunned-”

Jinki made a vaguely strangled noise and sighed. Then he stepped forward and began punching in the various sequences to close the safe again.

“At least he didn’t really outsmart me,” he said. “Remember when I told you I’d taken alternative measures to secure the key? I took the key out of the safe some time ago, replaced it with a decoy key and put the real key in a second location.”

Minho’s mind raced to process this. “So if this key is gone…”

The safe clicked completely closed again. Jinki patted the wall panel and turned around.

“Let’s go check my second hiding place, shall we?”

~~~

“See,” said Taemin. “Here’s the thing. I couldn’t find any indication of where the key had been hidden at _all_ for _ages_. Then one day, I noticed a very weird blip in some of the systems. I tracked down some stuff- it’s all very technical- and discovered a secret panel in the hydroponics garden.”

Jonghyun grinned. “They hid it in a garden? That’s poetic.”

“It would be,” said Taemin. “If they had actually hidden it there. See, the same blip occurred again yesterday and started to wonder _why_. Like, why would the captain open the safe twice and risk me cracking its passcodes?”

Jonghyun shrugged, clueless. Key made an impatient noise, fingers tightening on the disc he held.

“He took the real key out of it,” said Key. “That’s what you’re implying, right?

Taemin beamed, nodding. “That’s it! See, the same day I first noticed that blip, other odd things went on with the hoverball courts being temporarily out of service. I didn’t think anything about it at the time- half the ship’s systems were out of whack because of the damage you guys inflicted on them.”

“But then you got suspicious,” said Jonghyun, catching up. “So he switched the key to a safe in the hoverball courts?”

Taemin nodded again. “Yep. When I went to check it out, there was a piece of wall paneling that looked kinda strange- but which I never would have noticed if I hadn’t been looking for it.”

“Okay,” Key broke in, still impatient. “But if he put the key in the hoverball courts the first time, why open the safe again? Did he decide it wasn’t worth it and put the key back in the hydroponics safe?”

“See, that’s what I couldn’t figure out,” Taemin replied. “It doesn’t matter, though. The real key had to be in one of those two locations, y’know? So I checked both of them just to be safe.” He smirked, reaching a hand into his pocket, and drew out a second disc to match the first. “And it’s a good thing I did.”

~~~

“Of course, I ran into a problem,” said Jinki as he led Minho down the winding corridors towards the hoverball courts. “Navy Command informed me that a hacker was tuned into our systems and I knew that if that had happened, that hacker had probably already found the hydroponics safe and simply hadn’t figured out how to open it yet. So I decided that it was silly just to wait around until they cracked the code, you know?”

“I guess,” said Minho, struggling to keep up with Jinki’s brisk pace despite his longer stride. The wooziness from being stunned still had not quite cleared. “Is this going to explain how you baited the trap today, sir?”

“Yes,” said Jinki. “I opened the safe again yesterday because I knew the hacker would notice and with a second time to compare, would crack the passcodes on the thing. That would probably take them a day or so. Then, today, they’d call in the rest of the pirates and launch an attack.”

“And we would be ready and waiting to ambush them,” Minho finished. “Except something went wrong, didn’t it? The ship _turned_ on us.”

A muscle in Jinki’s jaw pulsed. “I know,” he said. “Command and I both expected the hacker to come from outside the ship without prior access to our systems beyond long-distance monitoring. Unfortunately, thanks to our hitchhiking fake hacker priest, he had a long time to set up viruses in our system…and also to discover my key switch.”

Minho froze for a second, then had to scramble to catch up with Jinki again.

“He _what_?”

“Well, I think he probably discovered it,” Jinki amended. “We won’t know for sure until we get there. But if Taemin was smart enough to crack the codes on the hydroponics safe, I’m fairly certain he’s smart enough to figure out where I hid the second key, especially since he was actually onboard when I made the switch.”

They fell silent the rest of the walk there. Most the crew paid them only the requisite momentary attention as they passed by, being much too involved in starting the repairs from the firefights to wonder what their captain and his second in command were doing.

When finally they reached the hoverball courts, Jinki led them to one of the sections of wall paneling that had had to be repaired after their various encounters with the _Garçons_. He went to one part of the wall in particular and twisted a piece of slightly protruding pipe around. The wall creaked, groaned and shifted to reveal a small keypad embedded behind the panel surface.

“I had a very discreet team from engineering do this,” Jinki explained as he began keying in a code. “I didn’t tell them what it was about, of course. It was best to keep the location of the key confidential.”

Minho nodded. “I’m sorry that you couldn’t trust me with this plan, sir,” he said, swallowing back more embarrassed guilt as Jinki’s fingers moved quickly over the secret keypad. “I haven’t behaved very professionally during this mission-”

“Neither have I, really,” said Jinki soothingly. “It’s all right, Commander. I didn’t keep the location of the key from you because I didn’t trust you to do your duty. It’s just regulation. Had I been killed, Command would have informed you as the new captain of where it was.”

Minho relaxed at these words of reassurance. “Thank you, sir.”

“You’re welcome.” Jinki whistled softly as he reentered a piece of code. “All right, almost there…and it’s open!”

The wall swung open. Minho and Jinki held their breath as they looked inside.

The safe was completely empty.

“ _Shit_ ,” said Minho feelingly. “That motherfucking priest got the motherfucking key- sorry, sir.”

“It’s fine,” said Jinki. To Minho’s shock, he grinned. “Like I said, once I realized that _Taemin_ was the hacker, I took measures to prevent him finding _this_ key as well.”

Minho’s head was beginning to ache from all this explanation. “Measures like what, sir?”

“I went to the library,” Jinki said. “And I grabbed a library holodisc that roughly looked like the key- I didn’t really have much time to find something better, you see- and switched that with the real key in here.”

Minho squinted into the empty safe, then looked back at Jinki. “So you’re saying that Taemin has the decoy key you put in the first safe and the holodisc you put in the second safe?”

“Yep,” said Jinki comfortably. “I doubt he’s come to a conclusion about which one of them is the real key, but it doesn’t really matter since _neither_ of them are.”

“And where _is_ the real key, sir?”

Jinki beamed and slid his hand into the inside breast pocket of his uniform jacket. “Why, here with me, of course.”

~~~

“And it’s a good thing I did,” said Taemin, placing the second disc in Key’s hand to join the first. “Or else I’d never have discovered just how _smart_ Captain Lee is.”

“Um,” said Jonghyun as Key closed his fingers over the second disc. “What?”

“Well, you see, I might not be that observant, but I _am_ a systems-tech expert,” Taemin said, tilting his chin up. “It didn’t take me very long to realize that the disc Captain Lee put in his hoverball safe was a holodisc, not a disc capable of running a security key.”

Key stared at him. “You brought me a possible decoy and a _holodisc_?”

“Of course not,” Taemin said, offended. “I brought you a possible decoy and the possible real thing. See,” and here he grinned a little shamelessly. “I got into a fistfight with the Captain on my way out and we ended up getting kinda _close_ , y’know?”

“Yeah,” said Jonghyun returning a dark look to the hickey, red against Taemin’s skin. “I know.”

Taemin rolled his eyes. “Anyway, when we were um, doing things, I felt something interesting in one of his pockets.”

“A dick, maybe?” suggested Key lightly, one eyebrow raised.

“ _Captain_ ,” said Taemin indignantly. “Of course not! I know what dicks feel like.” He ignored Jonghyun’s amused snort and went on. “No, it felt more flat and kinda suspiciously like a disc, y’know? So after I stunned him, I searched his pockets and found _that_.” He nodded at the second disc in Key’s hand. “And I replaced it with the holodisc, so it’ll be some time until he realizes he lost the real key after all.”

There was a startled silence as Jonghyun and Key processed this. Then-

“Holy _shit_ ,” said Key reverently. “I am _so_ fucking glad I hired you!”

~~~

Jinki pulled the disc from his pocket, smugly prepared to show Minho that one did not underestimate Lee Jinki.

It only took him one glance, however, to realize that this was _not_ the security key; he recognized the pink edging on the side of the disc, which neither the real key nor the decoy had had.

“Fuck,” he said, voice still with shock. “That _bastard_.”

Minho frowned anxiously at him. “What is it, sir?”

Jinki waved the disc around. “This is the _holodisc_! Taemin must have searched me after he stunned me earlier and switched it- god _damn_ it, the motherfucking _bastard_ -”

He descended into a rapid, very colorful string of curses, torn between yet more frustrated fury and a feeling of immense respect for the fake priest for figuring out his gambit. The fury was, at the moment, winning out. Jinki deeply hoped Taemin’s balls would take quite a while to recover from how hard Jinki had smashed his thigh into them. The little bastard deserved all that and more.

“…Captain?” Minho eyed him warily. “Are you all right, sir? I know it’s annoying losing to those bastards _again_ , but-”

“Annoying is a bit of an understatement,” said Jinki. He took another deep breath and let it slowly whistle out. “I’m fine, Commander, thank you.”

“If you’re sure,” said Minho dubiously.

“I’m sure,” Jinki reassured him. “I simply- _oh_!”

Minho straightened. “Sir?”

“I forgot,” said Jinki, and felt several times more an idiot for not remembering this crucial fact in his betrayed anger. “The decoy key isn’t just a fake disc. It’s a tracker as well.”

“So we _didn’t_ get our asses kicked completely, then!” Minho exclaimed. “Good thinking, sir!”

“Thank you,” said Jinki dryly. “I installed the tracker so that if it _did_ get stolen, we’d at least be able to get some intelligence out of it, like where the pirates seek safe shelter.”

“Yeah,” said Minho, wistful. “It’d be nice to know where they are.”

Jinki had a feeling that Minho didn’t mean this in a _so we can find them and blow the motherfuckers out of the sky_ kind of way. He let it go, the memory of Taemin’s body hot and hard against his still too vivid for the hypocrisy of scolding his commander for harboring inappropriate pirate feelings.

That memory in turn reminded him of the holomessage Taemin had left. So he wanted to see Jinki again, did he? Jinki took another deep, calming breath. He was amenable to that suggestion. The next time they met, it wouldn’t be the fucking pirates who came out on top. Jinki would make sure of _that_.

In the meantime, however, he had a very good idea of how to work out his anger in a way less destructive than shredding something into small pieces, and more realistic than hunting Taemin down and doing deeply unspeakable things to him.

Jinki clapped Minho on the shoulder.

“Come on, let’s go tell Command that we need to repair the ship again. Won’t that be _fun_? I’ll let you do the talking; it’ll be good for you.”

Minho groaned. “With all due respect, you’re an _asshole_ , sir.”

~~~

“Holy _shit_ ,” said Key. “I am _so_ fucking glad I hired you!”

Jonghyun laughed out loud and stepped away from the wall to tug Taemin into a tight one-armed hug. He used his other hand to knock off Taemin’s cap and ruffle his hair, ignoring his indignant squawks of protest.

“Good for you!” Jonghyun exclaimed gleefully. “Man, I wish I could see that fucker’s face when he realizes he just has a holodisc instead of the actual key! After all the nonsense he went through putting a decoy in one safe and then switching out the key in his second safe as well and _hah_ , I hope that holodisc was a porn vid because he's gonna need to enjoy _something_ after having his brilliant schemes fail.”

Taemin extricated himself from Jonghyun’s arms with some difficulty.

“You can ask him what it was one day,” he said. "I mean, if you're really _that_ interested."

Jonghyun frowned. "Ask him? How?"

Taemin shivered a little in place, smug. “Remember that surprise I told you about? I left our handsome captain a message telling him that two sexy pirates would be _very_ happy to see him again.”

Jonghyun gaped at him for a moment, speechless. Then he managed:

“You- what- _Taemin_!”

“What?” said Taemin innocently. “You really liked our threesome last time, didn’t you?”

“That doesn’t mean I want to do it again!”  
  
“Really?” This was Key now, eyeing him with smirk and a wicked sparkle to his eyes. “I distinctly remember accidentally walking in on you jerking off to _Yessir, please sir, more sir, Captain sir_ the other day and I’m pretty sure you weren’t moaning about _me_.”

Taemin giggled. Jonghyun stuffed his hands in his pockets and glared at them both.

“Well, okay, he’s pretty hot, all right? That doesn’t mean he has to _know_ I want him to bang me again!”

Taemin patted his arm. “It’s okay,” he said soothingly. “I’m sure he’s too upset about me fucking up his clever little key switcheroo to think much about you pining for his dick.”

“I am not _pining_ for his-”

“Ahem,” said Key loudly. He slid both discs into his pocket and winked at Taemin. “I’m going to contact Minho sometime this week. Let me know if you want to pass along a message to your Captain Lee, all right?”

“Will do,” said Taemin. He waved cheerfully as Key exited. Then he went and put his arms around Jonghyun. “C’mon, won’t it be fun to maybe one day play with him again?”

Jonghyun sighed and hugged Taemin back. “Honestly? Yeah.” He grinned as an idea struck him. “And we can mess with him via Key’s messages to his boyfriend. That’ll be fun.”

Taemin snickered and tightened his hold on Jonghyun. “I like that idea.”

“Good,” said Jonghyun. He nuzzled his face into the side of Taemin’s neck and licked at the hickey there. “In the meantime, wanna go celebrate our successful key-snatching mission?”

“Sure,” said Taemin happily. “Your room or mine?”

~~~

Four days later, a text-only message arrived for Minho to his communications account. The message came from an unknown sender, untrackable and without a return address. Minho ran the thing through several antivirus scans, then opened it, heart beating quickly with anticipation.

It read:

> _Hey darling,_
> 
> _It may be some months before I can arrange to see you again. We’re very busy at the moment and I’m sure you can guess why. ;p I’m also going to work out a way to send you secure messages so you can actually reply to me. It’s been, what, four days since I last saw you? And I already miss you, you asshole, how fucking embarrassing is that??_
> 
> _Anyway, because it hasn’t been that long, there’s really not much to tell you. We had the WILDEST party the night after we got your security key. Taemin drank so much he wound up stripping on a table and singing about the wonders of military-issue knee socks. Yeah, don’t ask. No one understands that kid._
> 
> _I’ll send you a longer and more interesting message once I have more time and access to a better form of communication. We should swap stories of the years we were apart; I want to hear EVERYTHING about your deep-space mission. The bits and pieces I had Taemin hack from your files were fascinating. Did you really once get high off alien flower pollen because you forgot to secure your hazmat face-shield? You need to tell me that story, man. I laughed SO hard just at the fragments of it I gathered from your files._
> 
> _Oh yeah, and you should probably double-check that my deposit of the star orbs into your bank account went well. Have I ever told you how much I fucking HATE banks? I’m never calling one again, I swear._
> 
> _Love, your Kibum_
> 
> _(also, Taemin and Jonghyun want me to pass along a message to your Captain, so here it is:_
> 
> _[[hey captain, you got my holomessage, right? i bet ur pretty pissed at me still so dont be afraid to come meet me some time and ‘discipline’ me and jonghyun >;D as long as u dont squash my balls again bc man that was painful dude painful OWW but its ok we look forward 2 seeing u again anyway. u and ur nice big dick. <3 <3 <3 taemin (and i showed this 2 jonghyun 4 his approval and he approved even tho he said my typing made him cry idk)]]_
> 
> _…Taemin was the one who typed that, Minho, I swear; I just copied and pasted it. Kid is about as romantic as a Cephean spine tree. Aren’t you glad I’m much more eloquent?)_

“Asshole,” Minho murmured once he’d finished reading, touching the line about his little incident with the alien flower pollen. Still, he couldn’t keep a wide grin from crossing his face, both at the obviously affectionate tone of the message and the prospect of being able to regularly keep in contact with Key from now on.

Well, that and the look he anticipated seeing on Jinki’s face when he delivered Taemin and Jonghyun’s message.

Minho laughed softly to himself, eyes skimming over the letter once more. Never mind how badly the pirates had screwed them over; for the first time in years Minho felt excited and enthusiastic about what life held in store. Having Key back in his life was worth _everything_.

He saved and closed the file, then left to go find his captain, humming an old song as he went.

_I thought that they were angels, but to my surprise_   
_We climbed aboard their starship, we headed for the skies_   
_Singing: come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me…_

**_~FIN_ **


End file.
